^^N c " - ^ 

/7\ /■ -' - - 




tMi^ ^M^ ^^/r^^ 




z 



/^o^-/ 










^c».^rr^-^- 




ao- 



f 



i* 






'^ . * 



\' 



\ 



^ %. 



THE 



Lir 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, 



AUTHOR OF THE 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 



THIRD PRESIDENT OF TEE UNITED STATES. 



" Let laurels, drencli'd in pure Parnassian dews, 
" Reward his mem'ry, dear to every muse, 
" Who, with a courage of unshaken root, 
" In honour's field advancing his firm foot, 
*' Plants it upoa the line that Justice draws, 
" And will prevail, or perish in her cause." 



BY WILLIAM LINN. 



ITHACA : 

TniNTED AND PUBLISHED BY MACK & ANDRUS. 



1834. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 
Mack & Andrus, in the office of the Clerk of the Northern 
District of the state of Nev: York. 



iiis%!H 



Bv 



.V,n..^\^. 



'f\ 



TO 



SIMEON DE WITT, ESa 

SURVEYOR GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK; 

This volume is inscribed^ 

as a testimonial of the gratitude and respect of the Compiler; 
accompanied by the wish, that his age may be as composed and 
happy as his past life has been arduous; honourable, and useful. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



This work is a compilation exclusively ; and the only merit 
it can possibly claim, is in the collection and arrangement of 
the materials, and in the authenticity and correctness of its 
authorities. And where facts and truths alone are sought, tliis 
acknowledgment cannot diminish the value of the production, 
or detract from its usefulness. Farther than what the writers 
quoted afford, neither the splendour of fancy, nor the fascina- 
tion of language, is to be expected from it; its aim has been a 
plain, unvarnished statement of the prominent incidents in the 
life of its illustrious subject ; and if that is attained, the inten- 
tion of the publishers is answered. The selections for this pur- 
pose have been made from various authors ; and the memoirs 
of Mr. Jefferson, composed by himself, and prefixed to the vol- 
umes of his correspondence, has been the text-book by which 
difficulties and discrepancies have been obviated or reconciled. 
These memoirs, however, comprise but little of his lengthened 
and eventful life, and his letters have enabled me, in some 
measure, to supply the deficiency. Neither have I hesitated, 
in many instances, to employ the very words of m}^ authorities ; 
conscious that any attempted amendment on my part, would not 
only be futile, but, by misapplication of a phrase, might perplex 
the meaning. On this account, a variety of style will be percep- 
Itible, but not having a tendency, it is imagined, to throw confu- 
sion in the facts related, or shroud expression in obscurity. To 
the " American Biography," more than any other, I have been 
indebted for date and incident. 

To present to the publick a candid and impartial history of 
the life of Thomas Jefferson, has been the anxious desire of 
the compiler, though, in other respects, his ability may have 
failed in the performance. This he hopes he has done ; and 
he has given in a portable and economical form, what was be- 
fore contained in, or appended to, books voluminous in bulk and 
extravagant in price. 

W. L. 



OF 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Life of Thomas Jefferson, author of the 
Declaration of Independence, President of the United 
States, and one of the most prominent actors in the 
stirring scenes of the revolution, cannot, we presume, 
be unacceptable to any American reader. The inci- 
dents of his distinguished life, his talents, the exalted 
stations which he filled, his intimate connexion wit? 
those illustrious men whom we delight to honour, and 
his association with the most important events in the 
revolutionary struggle, must always afford him a con- 
spicuous place in the history of our country. Shaken 
as he has been by the storms of the time, and so furious- 
ly assailed by political opponents, there was danger, 
while they contemplated nothing beyond the downfall 
of the executive, that their weapons might pass through 
his shield, and strike into the bosom of their country ; 
yet now, when the fury of the day has passed over, 
candour will do justice to his talents, appreciate his 
merits, and render gratitude for his services. The 
2 



6 LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 

clouds are rolling off from the darkened landscape, 
and the excellencies of his character can now be dis- 
tinguished on the horizon in all their native brightness. 
It has been remarked, that certain stated times and 
periods have been prolifick of great men. Nature 
seems then to have exerted herself with a more than 
ordinary effort, and to have poured them forth -with 
unusual fertility. But at no time or period did any 
country produce greater men, or those better qualified 
to conduct affairs to a successful issue, than at the com- 
mencement and during the progress of our combat for 
independence. The commanders were ardent and 
enterprising, and possessing an almost intuitive knowl- 
edge of their profession ; our counsellors were firm, 
prudent and sagacious ; and the continental Congress 
possessed a collective body of wisdom w^hich the world 
has seldom witnessed. The people themselves, enthu- 
siastick in the cause of liberty, deeply imbued with a 
detestation of tyranny, and with all their wrongs and 
remembrances about them, were brave and determined, 
unrepining in the midst of hardships, and free from 
cruelty and licentiousness. With such instruments, 
under the direction of a benignant Providence, the re- 
sult was glorious, and its effects and consequences have 
been beneficially felt over a great part of the globe. 
"History," said professor Silliman in 1820, "presents 
no struggle for liberty which has in it more of the 
moral sublime than that of the American revolution. 
It has of late years been too much forgotten in the sharp 
contentions of party, and he who endeavours to with- 
draw the publick mind from these debasing conflicts, 
and to fix it on the grandeur of that epoch, which, 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 7 

magnificent in itself, begins now to wear the solemn 
livery of antiquity as it is viewed through the deepen- 
ing twilight of almost half a century, certainly per- 
forms a meritorious service, and can scarcely need a 
justification." But if a subject of interest when con- 
templated in this view — if to the philosopher it affords 
a profound and gratifying theory in his annals of man — 
how vastly more important, and what a matter of ex- 
ultation, must it be to those who reflect that it was their 
fathers who exhibited this noble spectacle to the world, 
and that the rights and privileges which they enjoy 
are the splendid result of their exertions ! Their char- 
acters must become not only the subjects of curiosity, 
but their names of enduring gratitude, and the events 
of their lives not only the theme of frequent conversa- 
tion, but familiar as household terms. It is under 
these impressions that these memoirs are presented to 
the publick ; the memoirs of him whose name is one 
of the brightest in the revolutionary galaxy. 

Thomas JefTerson was descended from a family who 
had long been settled in Virginia, the province of his 
nativity. His ancestors, according to a late biographer, 
l;iad emigrated there at an early period ; and although 
bringing with them, as far as is known, no fortune be- 
yond that zeal and enterprize which are so useful and 
necessary to adventurers in a new and unknovv^n coun- 
try, and no rank beyond a name which was free from 
dishonour, they had a standing in the community high- 
ly respectable, and lived in circumstances of consider- 
able affluence. " The tradition in my father's family," 
says the subject of this sketch, in his modest and in- 
teresting memoirs, " was, that their ancestor came to 



$ L1¥E OP JEFFERSON. 

this country from Wales, and from near the mountain 
of Snowden, the highest in Great Britain. I noted 
once a case from Wales in the law reports, where a 
person of our name was either plaintiff or defendant, 
and one of the same name was secretary to the Virgin- 
ia Company. These are the only instances in which 
I have met with the name in that country. I have 
found it in our early records ; but the first particular 
information I have of any ancestor, was of my grand- 
father, who lived at the place in Chesterfield called 
Ozhorne's, and owned the lands afterwards the glebe of 
the parish. He had three sons : Thomas, who died 
young; Field, w^ho settled on the waters of Roanoke, 
and left numerous descendants ; and Peter, my father, 
who settled on the lands I still own, called Shadw^ell, 
adjoining my present residence. He was born Feb- 
ruary 29, 1707-8, and intermarried, 1739, with Jane 
Randolph, of the age of 19, daughter of Isham Ran- 
dolph, one of the seven sons of that name and family, 
settled at Dungeness, in Goochland. They trace their 
pedigree far back in England and Scotland, to which 
let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses." 

Thomas Jefferson was born April 2, old style, 1743, 
at Shadwell, in Albemarle county, Virginia, and was 
the eldest of eight children. His father, though his 
education had been entirely neglected in early life, yet, 
being a man of strong mind and sound judgement, he, 
by subsequent study, acquired no inconsiderable knowl- 
edge and information. His progress must have been 
not only rapid but profound, since Ave find him appoint- 
ed in the year 1747 one of the commissioners with 
Joshua Fry, Professor of Mathematicks in William an4 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. \) 

Mary College, for determining the division line between 
Virginia and North Carolina ; an appointment no less 
creditable to his talents than his integrity, a confidence 
in the latter of which is peculiarly necessary in set- 
tling the boundaries between jealous and independent 
territories. After this service, he was again employed 
with the same gentleman to make a map of Virginia, 
the first which had ever been made, that of Captain 
Smith being indebted more to fancy and conjecture 
than to fact. The father of Thomas Jefferson died 
August 17, 1757, leaving a widow, who lived until 
1776, and six daughters and tAvo sons. To the young- 
est son he left his estate on James River ; to the eldest, 
with whose life we are engaged, the lands on which 
he was born, and lived, and died. 

Young JefTerson was placed at an English school at 
the age of five years : and at a Latin one at the age of 
nine, where he continued until the death of his father. 
When that event happened, he was placed under the- 
tuition of the Reverend Mr. Maury, whom he represents 
as a "correct classical scholar," and with whom he re- 
mained two years; when in the spring of 1760 he en- 
tered William and Mary College, and continued there 
the space of two years more. At the latter place it 
was his great good fortune, and what he considered as 
fixing the destinies of his life, that Doctor William 
Small, of Scotland, was then Professor of Mathemat- 
icks in the institution; "a man," says his pupil, "pro- 
found in most of the useful branches of science, with 
a happy talent of communication, of correct and gen- 
tlemanly manners, and with an enlarged and liberal 
mind." An attachment was soon formed between tMese 
2* 



10 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

congenial spirits, and they became daily and insepara- 
ble companions. From the conversations of this learn- 
ed man, and true friend, Jefferson confesses that he first 
imbibed his views of the expansion of science, and of 
the system of things in which we are placed. 

Doctor Small returned to Europe in 1762, having 
first occupied the philosophical chair at the College, 
and filled up the measure of goodness to his young 
friend by procuring for him a reception as a student at 
law under the direction of the celebrated George 
Wythe, the most distinguished man of his age, one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and 
afterwards Chancellor of the state of Virginia. With 
this gentleman he was also united not merely by the 
ties of professional connexion, but by a congeniality of 
feeling and similarity of views alike honourable to 
them both; the friendship formed in youth was cement- 
ed and strengthened by age, and when the venerable 
preceptor closed his life in 1806, he bequeathed his li- 
brary and philosophical apparatus to a pupil and friend 
who had already proved himself worthy of his instruc- 
tion and regard. 

In 1767 he was introduced to the practice of the law 
at the bar of the General Court of the colony, and at 
which he continued until the revolution. His legal 
career was not only pursued with zeal, but attended 
with overflowing success. In the short period he de- 
voted himself to it, he acquired an enviable reputation ; 
and a monument of his professional labour and legal 
research still exists in a volume of reports of adjudged 
cases in the supreme courts of Virginia, compiled and 
digested amid the engagements of active occupation. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 11 

But his energy and talents were demanded by his 
fellow citizens for publick life, and his country would 
not permit him to remain in a private station, or attend 
to ordinary affairs; their hopes and desires already 
pointed to him, and their interests directed his aim to 
higher objects and more extensive usefulness. As early 
as the year 1769 he was elected a member of the pro- 
vincial legislature from the county where he resided, 
and continued a member of that body until it was clos- 
ed by the revolution. In consequence, he became as- 
sociated with men who will always stand in bold relief 
among the first, the most ardent, and most determined 
champions of our rights. 

While here, he made one strenuous but fruitless ef- 
fort for the emancipation of the slaves: so early had a 
love of liberty and a detestation of tyranny been im- 
printed on his mind. His failure is ascribed to the 
effect of the regal government, from which nothing 
liberal, or that innovated on established errour, could 
expect success. The minds of the generality were 
fettered and circumscribed within narrow limits by an 
habitual belief that it was a duty to be subordinate to 
the mother country in all matters of government, to 
direct the colonial labours in subserviance to her inter- 
ests, and even to observe a bigoted intolerance for all 
religions but her own. " The difficulties with our 
representatives," he writes, " were of habit and despair, 
not of reflection and conviction." And thus this noble 
attempt was considered as the attempt of rashness, and 
met the fate of folly. And that which has since im- 
mortalized its authors and promoters, was first con- 
ceired by the mind and enforced by the eloquence of 



12 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

Jefferson, and adds no fluttering pinion to his deathless 
renown. 

Ever since the year 1763, a spirit of opposition to 
the British government had been gradually arising in 
the province of Virginia, and this spirit was rapidly in- 
creasing, owing to the arbitrary measures of the mother 
country, which seemed to be the result no less of mad- 
ness than determined oppression. The attachment to 
England was great in all the colonies, and in Virginia 
it was more than usually strong ; many of the princi- 
pal families, according to a popular writer, were con- 
nected with it by the closest ties of consanguinity ; the 
young men of talent were sent thither to complete their 
education in its colleges ; and by many, and those not 
the least patriotick, it was fondly looked to as their 
home. To sever so intimate a connexion could not be 
an undertaking of ordinary facility ; yet such was the 
rash course pursued by the British ministry, that a very 
brief space was sufficient to dissolve in every breast 
that glowed with national feeling, those ties which had 
been formed by blood, by time, and by policy. A very 
short experience and a slight converse with the politi- 
cal history of the world were sufficient to convince ev- 
ery mind that there were no hazards too great to be en- 
countered for the establishment of institutions which 
would secure the country from a repetition of insults 
that could only end in abject slavery. It cannot be 
doubted that Mr. Jefferson was among the first to per- 
ceive and suggest the only course that could be adopted. 
The convictions of his mind, and ardour of his feelings, 
may, in some measure, be judged, from his recollections 
of the powerful efforts of the celebrated Patrick Henry, 



LIFE or JEFFERSON. 13 

and of which he was a witness. " When the famous re- 
solutions of 1 765 against the stamp act were proposed, 
I was yet a student of law in Williamsburgh. I attend- 
ed the debate, however, at the door of the lobby of the 
House of Burgesses, and heard the splendid display of 
Mr. Henry's talents as a popular orator. They were 
great indeed ] such as I never heard from any other 
man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote," 
In Mr. Jefferson's opinion, Henry, one of the most em- 
inent, but at the same time the most indolent of men, 
was the first who gave impetus to the ball of the revo- 
lution in the province of Virginia. Such are the effects 
of oratorial eloquence I Its power is almost irresisti- 
ble : it penetrates, says one who seems to have been un- 
der the fascination of its influence, into the inmost re- 
cesses of the soul. It is able to excite or to calm the 
passions of men at will ; to drive the multitude forward 
to acts of rashness, or to say to the contending passions, 
*' Peace, be still," It changes the whole current of our 
ideas concerning the nature and importance of objects, 
and of our obligations and advantages respecting them. 
It rouses from pernicious indolence, and renders the 
sentiments and dispositions already formed most influ- 
ential. In a word, it has made of the human species 
both angels and monsters ; it has animated to the most 
noble and generous exertions, and it has impelled to 
deeds of horrour. 

It is in allusion to the events of the same period that 
Mr. Jefferson writes : " The colonies were taxed inter- 
nally and externally ; their essential interests sacrificed 
to individuals in Great Britain ; their legislatures sus- 
pended; charters annulled; trials by juries taken 



14 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

away ; their persons subjected to transportation across 
the Atlantick, and to trial by foreign judicatories ; their 
supplications for redress thought beneath answer; 
themselves published as cowards in the councils of their 
mother country, and courts of Europe; armed troops 
sent amongst them to enforce submission to these violen- 
ces; and actual hostilities commenced against them. 
No alternative was presented but resistance or uncon- 
ditional submission. Between these, there could be no 
hesitation. They closed in an appeal to arms." 

In 1 769, shortly after the election of Mr. Jeiferson 
to the provincial legislature, these discontents arrived 
at their crisis. In May of that year, a meeting of the 
General Assembly was called by the Governour, Lord 
Botetourt. To that meeting was made known the joint 
resolutions and address of the British Lords and Com- 
mons of 1768-9, on the proceedings in Massachusetts. 
Counter resolutions, and an address to the King, by 
the House of Burgesses, were agreed to with little op- 
position ; and a spirit manifestly displayed itself of con- 
sidering the cause of Massachusetts as a common one. 
The Governour dissolved the General Assembly in con- 
sequence of the sympathy which was thus exhibited by 
a majority of its members ; but they met the next day 
in the publick room of the Raleigh Tavern, formed 
themselves into a convention, drew up articles of associ- 
ation against the use of any merchandise from Great 
Britain, and signed and recommended them to the peo- 
ple. They then repaired to their respective counties ; 
and were all re-elected except those few who had declin- 
ed assenting to their proceedings. 

On the first of January, 1772, Mr. Jefferson married 



IIFE OF JEFFERSON. 15 

ike daughter of Mr. John Wayles of Virginia, an alli- 
ance by which he at once gained an accession of 
strength and credit, and received, in the intervals of 
publick business, that domestick happiness he was so 
well fitted to partake and enjoy. Its duration, however, 
was but short ; in little more than ten years, death de- 
prived him of his wife, and left him the sole guardian 
of two infant daughters : to whose education he devo- 
ted himself with a constancy and zeal, which might, in 
some measure, compensate for the want of a mother's 
care and instruction. Mr. Wayles was an eminent 
lawyer of the province, and having by his great industry, 
punctuality, and practical readiness, acquired a hand- 
some fortune, he died in May, 1773, leaving three daugh- 
ters : the portion which came on that event to Mrs. Jef- 
ferson was about equal to the patrimony of her husband, 
and consequently doubled the ease of their circum- 
stances. 

After the dissolution of the Virginia legislature in 
1769, nothing of particular excitement in the country 
occurred for a considerable length of time ; the nation 
appeared to have fallen into an apathy or insensibility 
to their situation ; although the duty on tea was not yet 
repealed, and the declaratory act of a right in the Bri- 
tish parliament to bind them by their laws in all cases, 
was still supended over them. But they at length 
aroused from their stupor. A court of inquiry held in 
Rhode Island in 1762, with a power to send persons to 
England to be tried for offences committed here, was 
thought to have aimed a deadly stab at the most sacred 
rights of the citizen, and as demanding the attention of 
the legislature of Virginia. The subject was takeri 



16 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

Tip and considered at the spring session of 1773. On 
this occasion, Mr. Jefferson associated himself with 
several of the boldest and most active of his com- 
panions in the house, ("not thinking," as he says 
himself, "the old and leading members up to the 
point of forwardness and zeal which the times re- 
quired,") and with them formed the system of Com- 
mittees of Correspondence, in a private room, in the 
same Raleigh Tavern. They were sensible that the 
most urgent of all measures was that of coming to an 
understanding Avith all the other colonies, to consider 
the British claims as a common cause to all, and to pro- 
duce a unity of action ; and for this purpose, that a 
committee of correspondence in each colony would be 
the best instrument for intercommunication, and that 
their first measure would probably be to propose a meet- 
ing of deputies from every colony, at some central place, 
who should be charged with the direction of the meas- 
ures which should be taken by all. In furtherance of 
these views, the following resolutions were drawn up, 
and probably proceeded from his pen: 

*' Whereas the minds of his majesty's faithful subjects 
in this colony have been much disturbed by various ru- 
mours and reports of proceedings tending to deprive 
them of their ancient legal and constitutional rights: 

"And whereas the affairs of this colony are frequent- 
ly connected with those of Great Britain, as well as the 
neighbouring colonies, which renders a communication 
of sentiments necessary; in order therefore to remove 
the uneasiness and to quiet the minds of the people, as 
well as for the other good purposes above mentioned: 

"Be it resolved, that a standing committee of cones- 



I.1FE OF JEFFERSON. 17 

pondence and inquiry be appointed, to consist of eleven 
persons, to wit: the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esq. 
Robert C. Nicholas, Richard Bland, Richard H. Lee, 
Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Hen- 
ry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald Gary, 
and Thomas Jefferson, Esquires ; any six of whom to 
be a committee, whose business it shall be to obtain the 
most early and authentick intelligence of all such acts 
and resolutions of the British parliament, or proceedings 
of administration, as may relate to or affect the British 
colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain a 
correspondence and communication with our sister co- 
lonies respecting those important considerations ; and 
the result of such their proceedings, from time to time, 
to lay before this house. 

" Resolved, that it be an instruction to the said com- 
mittee, that they do, without delay, inform themselves 
particularly of the principles and authority on Avhich 
was constituted a Court of Inquiry. said to have been 
lately held in Rhode Island, with powers to transport 
persons accused of offences committed in America to 
places beyond the seas to be tried. 

" The said resolutions being severally read a second 
time, were, upon the question severally put thereupon, 
agreed to by the house nemine contradicente. 

" Resolved, that the Speaker of this house do trans- 
mit to the Speakers of the different Assemblies of the 
British colonies on this continent, copies of the said 
resolutions, and desire that they will lay them before 
their respective Assemblies, and request them to ap- 
point some person or persons of their respective bodies 
3 



18 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

to coramunicate from time to time with the said com- 
mittee." 

The consulting members proposed to Mr. Jefferson 
to move these resolutions : but he urged that it should 
be done by Mr. Carr, his friend and brother-in-law, 
then a new member, and to whom he wished an oppor- 
tunity should be given of making known to the house 
his great worth and talents. It was so agreed: he 
moved them, they were adopted without a dissenting 
voice, and a committee of correspondence appointed, of 
%vhom Qeyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. 
The Governour (then Lord Dunmore) immediately 
dissolved the house : but the com.mittee met next day, 
prepared a circular letter to the Speakers of the other 
colonies, inclosing to each a copy of the resolutions, 
and left it in charge with their chairman to forward 
.them by expresses. 

We would step aside one moment, for the purpose of 
introducing Mr. Wirt's description of the mind and 
manners, of the gentleman who first presented these res- 
olutions to the house. "In supporting these resolu- 
tions," says he, *' Mr. Carr made his dehut, and a noble 
one it is said to have been. This gentleman, by pro- 
fession a lawyer, had recently commenced his practice 
at the same bars with Patrick Henry; and although 
he had not yet reached the meridian of life, he was con- 
sidered by far the most formidable rival in forensick el- 
oquence that Mr. Henry had ever yet had to encounter. 
He had the advantage of a person at once dignified and 
engaging, and the manner and action of an accom- 
plished gentleman. His education was a finished one, 
his mind trained to correct thinking, his conceptions 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 19 

quick, and clear, and strong ; he reasoned with great 
cogency, and had an imagination which enlightened 
beautifully, without interrupting or diverting the course 
of his argument. His voice was finely toned ; his feel- 
ings acute: his style free, and rich, and various ; his 
devotion to the cause of liberty verging on enthusiasm ; 
and his spirit firm and undaunted, beyond the possibili- 
ty of being shaken. With what delight the House of 
Burgesses hailed this new champion, and felicitated 
-themselves on such an accession to their cause, it is easy 
to imagine. But what are the hopes and expectations 
of mortals 1 In two months from the time at which 
this gentleman stood before the House of Burgesses, in 
all the pride of health, and genius, and eloquence, he 
was no more 1 Lost to his friends and his country, 
and disappointed of standing in that noble triumph 
which awaited the illustrious band of his compatriots." 
We have similar testimony from a different pen. " I 
■well remember," says an eye witness, " the pleasure 
expressed in the countenances and conversation of the 
members generally in this debut of Mr. Carr, and the 
hopes they conceived, as well from the talents as the 
patriotism it manifested. But he died within two 
months after, and in him we lost a powerful fellow la- 
bourer. His character was of a high order, a spotless 
integrity, sound judgement, handsome imagination, en- 
riched by education and reading ; quick and clear in 
his conceptions; of correct and ready elocution ; im- 
pressing every hearer with the sincerity of the heart 
from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible in 
whatever he thought right ; but when no moral princi- 
ple was in the way, never had man more of the milk 



20 LIFE OF JEFFERSON'. 

of human kindness, of indulgence, of softness, of pleas- 
antry in conversation and conduct. The number of 
his friends, and the warmth of their affections, were 
proofs of his worth, and their estimate of it." This 
was the first and only speech of Mr. Carr in the House 
of Representatives. He died the 16th of May, 1773, 
in the thirtieth year of his age. 

This system of corresponding committees between 
the legislatures of the different colonies, which was 
thus adopted as the best instrument for communication 
between the respective colonies, and by which they 
might be- brought to a mutual understanding and a uni- 
ty of action, has since been asserted to have arisen 
in Massachusetts, and Judge Marshall, in his Life of 
Washington, has fallen into the errour. But Mr. Jef- 
ferson, and no doubt correctly, asserts the contrary. 
He imagines the mistake to have arisen from confound- 
ing together two distinct committees : adding, " Thus 
in Massachusetts there were two committees of cor- 
respondence, one chosen by the people, the other ap- 
pointed by the House of Assembly ; in the former, Mas- 
sachusetts preceded Virginia ; in the latter, Virginia 
preceded Massachusetts. To the origination of com- 
mittees for the interiour correspondence between the 
counties and towns of a state, I know of no claim on 
the part of Virginia, and certainly none was ever 
made by myself" And the letter of Samuel A. Wells, 
Esquire, to Mr. Jefferson, and the answer of the latter 
of May 12th, 1829, show conclusively that Massachu- 
setts did not adopt the measure, but on receipt of the 
proposition from Virginia, and which was delivered a.'^ 
their next session. 



IIFE OF JEFFERSON, 21 

On the twelfth of March, 1773, Mr. Jefferson was 
chosen a member of the first committee of correspond- 
ence established by the colonial legislatures, the act 
already alluded to, as the most important of the revo- 
lution in preparing the way for that union of sentiment 
and action from whence arose the first effective resist- 
ance, and on which depended the successful progress 
and final triumph of the cause. 

The year 1774 found Mr. Jefferson still actively en- 
gaged in his duties as a member of the legislature of 
Virginia. The passage by Parliament of the Boston 
Port Bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the 
first of June, 1774, was the next event which aroused 
the indignation and excited the sympathies of the 
house. It arrived while they were in session, in the 
spring of 1774. It was at this crisis that Mr. Jeffer- 
son wrote, and the members, though not then adopting 
as resolutions, afterwards published his "Summary 
View of the Rights of British America;" and in which 
he maintained what was then thought by many a bold 
position, but which he considered as the only orthodox 
and tenable one : that the relation between Great Brit- 
ain and the colonies was exactly the same as that of 
England and Scotland, after the accession of James, 
and until the union, and the same as her present rela- 
tion with Hanover, having the same executive chief, 
but no other necessary political connexion ; and that 
our emigration from England to this country gave her 
no more rights over us, than the emigration of the 
Danes and Saxons gave to the authorities of the mother 
country over England. 

" In this doctrine, however," says he, "I had never 
3* 



22 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

been able to get any one to agree with me but Mr. 
Wythe. He coincided in it from the first dawn of the 
question, What was the political relation between us 
and England? Our other patriots, Randolph, the 
Lees, Nicholas and Pendleton, stopped at the half-way 
house of John Dickinson, who admitted that England 
had a right to regulate our commerce and to lay duties 
on it for the purpose of regulation, but not of raising rev- 
enue. But for this ground there was no foundation in 
compact in any acknowledged principles of coloniza- 
tion, nor in reason : expatriation being a national right, 
and acted on as such by all nations, in all ages." 

This pamphlet is addressed to the king, as the chief 
officer of the people, appointed indeed by the laws, but 
circumscribed by definitive power, to carry into efiect 
that institution of government erected by themselves 
for their use and benefit, and consequently subject to 
their superintendence. He reminded him that our an- 
cestors had been British freemen ; that they had ac- 
quired their settlements here at their own expense and 
blood ; that it was for themselves they fought, for them- 
selves they conquered ; and for themselves alone they 
had a right to hold. That they had indeed thought 
proper to adopt the same system of laws under which 
they had hitherto lived, and to unite themselves under 
a common sovereign phut that no act of theirs had ever 
given a title to that authority, which the British par- 
liament arrogated; that the crown had unjustly com- 
menced its encroachments, by distributing the settle- 
ments among its favourites, and the followers of its for- 
tunes ; that it then proceeded to abridge the free trade 
which the colonies possessed as of natural right with all 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 23 

parts of the world; and that afterwards offices were es- 
tablished of little use but to accommodate the ministers 
and sycophants of the crown. That during the reign of 
the sovereign whom he immediately addressed, the vi- 
olation of rights had increased in rapid and bold suc- 
cession ; being no longer single acts of tyranny, that 
might be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day;^ 
but a series of oppressions pursued so unalterably 
through every change of ministers, as to prove too plain- 
ty a deliberate and systematical plan of reducing the 
colonies to slavery. He next proceeds, in a style of the 
boldest invective, to point out the several acts by which 
this plan has been enforced, and enters against them a 
solemn and determined protest. He then considers the 
conduct of the king as holding an executive authority 
in the colonies, and points out, without hesitation, his " 
deviation from the line of duty ; he asserts that by the 
unjust exercise of his negative power, he had rejected 
laws of the most salutary tendency ; that he had defeat- 
ed repeated attempts to stop the slave trade and abol- 
ish tyranny ; thus preferring the immediate advantages 
of a few African corsairs, to the lasting interests of 
America, and to the rights of human nature, deeply 
wounded by this infamous practice. That, inattentive 
to the necessities of his people, he had neglected for 
years the laws which were sent for his inspection : and 
that, assuming a power, for advising the exercise of 
which, the English judges, in a former reign, had 
suffered death as traitors to their country, he had dissol- 
ved the representative assemblies, and refused to call 
others. That to enforce these, and other arbitrary 
measures, he had from time to time sent over large 



24 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

bodies of armed men, not made up of the people here, 
nor raised by the authority of their laws. That to ren- 
der these proceedings still more criminal, instead of 
subjecting the military to the civil powers, he had 
expressly made the latter subordinate to the former. 
That these grievances were thus laid before their 
sovereign, with that freedom of language and senti- 
ment which became a free people, whom flattery would 
ill beseem, when asserting the rights of human nature. 

In all this we perceive the germe of that national 
declaration, which so shortly succeeded it ; many of 
the same bold truths, and in the same bold language. 

In these sentiments, however, bold as they were, his 
political associates joined with him ; they considered 
those acts of oppression directed sigainst the colonies 
of New England, acts in which all were concerned, 
and an attack on the liberties and immunities of every 
other province. They accordingly resolved, that the 
first day of June, the day on which the Boston Port 
Bill w^as to go into operation, should be set apart by 
the members as a day of fasting, humiliation and 
prayer, " devoutly to implore the divine interposition 
for averting the heavy calamities which threatened 
destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil 
war; and to give them one heart and one mind, to 
oppose by all just and proper means every injury to 
American rights." 

Lord Dunmore, the royal Governour of the province, 
could not be otherwise than highly exasperated at such 
proceedings. Mr. Jefferson, who had boldly avowed 
himself the author of the obnoxious pamphlet, was 
threateneu with a prosecution by him for high treason ; 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 25 

and the House of Burgesses was immediately dissolved 
after their daring publication. Notwithstanding these 
measures, the members met in their private capacities, 
and mutually signed a spirited publication, setting forth 
the unjust conduct of the Governour, who had left them 
this, their only method, to point out to their countrymen 
the measures they deemed the best calculated to secure 
their liberties from destruction by the arbitrary hand 
of power. They told them that they could no longer 
resist the conviction, that a determined system had been 
formed to reduce the inhabitants of British America to 
slavery, by subjecting them to taxation w^ithout their 
consent, by closing the port of Boston, and raising a 
revenue on tea. They therefore strongly recommend- 
ed a' closer alliance with the sister colonies, the forma- 
tion of committees of correspondence, and the annual 
meeting of a General Congress ; and earnestly hoping 
that a persistance in these principles would not compel 
them to adopt measures of a more decisive character. 

The pamphlet having found its way to England, it 
was taken up by the opposition, and, with a few inter- 
polations by the celebrated Edmund Burke, passed 
through several editions. It procured for its author 
considerable reputation, and likewise the dangerous 
honour of having his name placed on a list of proscrip- 
tions in a bill of attainder, which was commenced in 
one of the houses of parliament, but was speedily sup- 
pressed. In the same bill the names of Hancock, the 
two Adamses, Peyton Randolph, and Patrick Henry, 
were inserted. 

We are now rapidly approaching the most important 



26 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

event in the life of Mr. Jefferson, and in the history of 
his country. 

The year 1775 opened, in England, with strenuous 
attempts by the friends, and apparent ones by the ene- 
mies of the colonies, to effect a reconciliation. The 
certain intelligence which had been received of the 
transactions of Congress, and the astonishing concord 
which prevailed in America, made the ministers loath 
to embrace extreme counsels, and inclined to relax 
somewhat of their rigour, and to leave an opening for 
accommodation. Lord North even intimated to the 
American merchemts then in London, that if they pre- 
sented petitions, they should meet attention. But in 
the midst of these glimmerings of peace, the news ar- 
rived of the schism of New York ; an event of great 
moment in itself, and promising consequences still more 
important. The minister felt his pride revive: he 
would no longer hear of petitions or accommodation. 
Things turned anew to civil war and strife. All the 
papers relating to the affairs of America, were laid be- 
fore the two houses. The great Chatham, perceiving 
the obstinacy of the ministers in their resolution to 
persist in the course of measures they had adopted, and 
fearing that it might result in the most disastrous ef- 
fects, pronounced a long and most extremely eloquent 
discourse in favour of the colonies, and was heard 
with solemn and rapt attention. 

After having repulsed with a sort of disdain the peti- 
tions of the colonies, and those presented in their favour 
by the islands of the West Indies, and even by Eng- 
land herself; and after having rejected all the counsels 
of the party in opposition, the ministers unveiled 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 27 

their schemes, and announced in the presence of the 
two houses the measures they intended to pursue, in or- 
der to reduce the colonies to subjection. 

They pronounced that the province of Massachu- 
setts was found in a state of rebellion : and it was 
proposed that in the address of the king it should be 
declared that rebellionexistedin the province of Mas- 
sachusetts, and that it was supported and fomented by 
illegal combinations and criminal compacts with the 
other colonies, to the great detriment of many subjects 
of his majesty. This proposition of the ministers was 
put to vote, and carried by a majority of two thirds of 
the house. 

Lord North then proposed a new bill, the object of 
which was to restrict the commerce of New England 
to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West India islands, 
and prohibit, at the same time, the fishery of Newfound- 
land. This bill was also approved by a great majority. 
The opposition protested; the ministers scarcely deign- 
ed to perceive it. 

But the counsels of the ministers ended not here. 
Wishing to blend with rigour a certain clemency, and 
also to prevent new occasions of insurrection in the 
colonies, they brought forward the project of a law, 
purporting that when in any province or colony, the 
Governour, Council, Assembly, or General Court, 
should propose to make provisions according to their re- 
spective conditions, circumstances and faculties, for con- 
tributing their proportion to the common defence; such 
proportion to be raised under the authorities of the 
GenerarCourt or Assembly in each province or colony, 
and disposable by Parliament ; and should engage to 



28 LIFE OF JEFFERSON^ 

make provision also for the support of the civil gov- 
ernment, and the administration of justice in such prov- 
ince or colony; it would be proper, if such proposal 
should be approved by the King in his Parliament, 
and for so long as such provision should be made ac- 
cordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or 
colony, to impose any duties, taxes, or assessments, ex- 
cept only such as might be thought necessary for the 
regulation of commerce. This likcMrise received the 
usual large majority in its favour, with directions to 
lay it before the respective provincial legislatures. It 
was at least hoped that if the scheme did not finally 
succeed, it might produce disunion or discontent. 

Accordingly, on the first of June, 1775, this resolu- 
tion was presented by Lord Dunmore, the Governour, 
to the legislature of Virginia ; and Mr. Jefferson was 
selected by the committee, to w^hom it was referred, to 
frame the reply. This w^as done with so much force 
of argument, enlarged patriotism, and sound political 
discretion, that it will ever be considered as a document 
of the highest order. It concludes in these words : 

" These, my Lord, are our sentiments on this impor- 
tant subject, which w^e offer only as an individual part 
of the whole empire. Final determination we leave 
to the General Congress now sitting, before whom we 
shall lay the papers your Lordship has communicated 
to us. For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode 
of application which our invention could suggest as 
proper and promising. We have decently remonstra- 
ted with Parliament: they have added new injuries to 
the old. We have wearied our King with supplica- 
tions : he has not deigned to answer us. We have 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 29 

appealed to the native honour and justice of the British 
nation : their efforts in our favour have hitherto been 
ineffectual. What, then, remains to be done? That we 
commit our injuries to the even-handed justice of that 
Being who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching him 
to illuminate the couici's, and prosper the endeavours 
of those to whom America hath confided her hopes ; 
that, through their wise directions, we may again see 
reunited the blessings of liberty, prosperity, and har- 
mony with Great Britain." 

When this address had been passed, Mr. Jefferson 
immediately proceeded to Congress, which was then in 
session, and gave them the first notice they had of it. 
It was highly approved of by them. He had been 
elected on the twenty-seventh of March, 1775, one of the 
members to represent Virginia in the General Con- 
gress already assembled at Philadelphia, but had de- 
layed his departure until now at the request of Mr, 
Randolph, who was fearfal the draughting of the ad- 
dress alluded to would, in his absence, have fallen into 
feebler hands. An elegant biographer asserts : " When 
about to leave the colony, a circumstance is stated to 
have occurred to him, and to Mr. Harrison and Mr. Lee, 
his fellow delegate ;, that conveyed a noble mark of the 
unbounded confidence which their constituents reposed 
in their integrity and virtue. A portion of the inhabit- 
ants, who, far removed from the scenes of actual tyranny 
which were acted in New England, and pursuing unin- 
terruptedly their ordinary pursuits, could form no idea 
of the slavery impending over them, waited on their 
three representatives, just before their departure, and 
addressed them in the following terms : 
4 



30 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

" You assert that there is a fixed design to invade 
our rights and privileges ; we own that we do not see 
this clearly, but since you assure us that it is so, we 
believe the fact. We are about to take a very danger- 
ous step ; but we confide in you, and are ready to sup- 
port you in every measure you shall think proper to 
adopt." On the twenty-first of June, 1775, Mr. Jef- 
ferson appeared, and took his seat in the Continental 
Congress. In this new capacity he persevered in the 
decided tone which he had assumed, always maintain- 
ing that no accommodation should be made between 
the two countries, unless on the broadest and most lib- 
eral principles ; and here, as elsewhere, he soon ren- 
dered himself conspicuous among the most able and 
distinguished men of the day. On the twenty-fourth 
of the same month, a committee which had been ap- 
pointed to prepare a declaration setting forth the causes 
and necessity of resorting to arms, brought in their re- 
port, (drawn up, as it was believed, by J. Rutledge,) 
which, not being approved of, the house recommitted 
it, and added Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Jefierson to the 
committee. It is on this occasion that Mr. Jefferson 
relates the following circumstance : " On the rising of 
the house, the committee having not yet met, I happen- 
ed to find myself near Governour W. Livingston, and 
proposed to him to draw the paper. He excused him- 
self, and proposed that I should draw it. On my pres- 
sing him with urgency, ' We are as yet but new ac- 
quaintances, sir,' said he, 'why are you so earnest for 
my doing it V 'Because,' said I, ' I have been informed 
that you drew the address to the people of Great Britain, 
a production, certainly, ofthe finest pen in America.' 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 31 

•On that,' says he, 'perhaps, sir, you may not have been 
correctly informed.' I had received the information 
in Virginia, from Colonel Harrison, on his return from 
that Congress. Lee, Livingston, and Jay, had been 
the committee for the draught. The first, prepared by 
Lee, had been disapproved and recommitted. The sec- 
ond was drawn by Jay, but being presented by Gov- 
ernour Livingston, had led Colonel Harrison into the 
errour. The next morning, walking in the Hall of 
Congress, many members being assembled, but the 
house not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay speaking to 
R. H. Lee, and leading him by the button of his coat to 
me. ' I understand, sir,' said he to me, ' that this gen- 
tleman informed you, that Govern our Livingston drew 
the address to the people of Great Britain,' I assur- 
ed him at once that I had not received that information 
from Mr. Lee, and that not a word had ever passed on 
the subject between Mr. Lee and myself; and after 
some explanations, the subject was dropped. These 
gentlemen had had some sparrings in debate before, 
and continued ever very hostile to each other." 

Mr. Jefferson prepared the draught of the declara- 
tion committed to them. It was drawn with singular 
ability, and exhibited his usual firmness and discretion; 
but it was considered as too decided by Mr. Dickinson. 
He still nourished the hope of a reconciliation with 
Great Britain, and was unwilling it should be lessened 
by what he considered as offensive statements. He 
was so honest a man, says Mr. Jefferson, and so able a 
one, that he was greatly indulged even by those who 
could not feel his scruples. He was therefore request- 
ed to take the paper and put it in a form he could ap- 



32 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

prove. He did so, preparing an entire new statement, 
and preserving of the former only the last four para- 
graphs and half of the preceding one. The committee 
approved and reported it to Congress, who accepted it. 
Congress, continues Mr. Jefferson, gave a signal proof 
of their indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of their 
great desire not to go too fast for any respectable part 
of their body in permitting him to draw their second 
petition to the King, according to his own ideas, and 
passing it with scarcely any amendment. The dis- 
gust against its humility was general; and Mr. Dick- 
inson's delight at its passage, was the only circum- 
stance which reconciled them to it. The vote being- 
passed, although further observation on it was out of 
order, he could not refrain from rising and expressing 
his satisfaction, and concluded by saying, ' There is but 
one word, Mr. President, in the paper, which I disap- 
prove, and that is the word Co^igress ;^^ on which 
Mr. B. Harrison rose and replied, " There is but one 
word in the paper, Mr. President, of w^hich I approve, 
and that is the word Congress.''^ 

Lord North's conciliatory resolution coming before 
the house, Mr. Jefferson, as one of the committee, was 
requested to prepare the report on the same. The an- 
swer of the Virginia Assembly on the same subject 
having been approved, will account for any similarity 
between the two reports, they both having proceeded 
from the same hand. 

On the eleventh of August, Mr. Jefferson was again 
elected a delegate from Virginia, to the third Congress. 
Though constantly and actively engaged during the 
winter in the various matters which engaged the attea- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 33 

tion of the house, yet he seems rather to have devoted 
himself to objects of general policy, the arrangement of 
general plans and systems of action, the investigation 
of important documents, and objects of a similar na- 
ture, than to the details of active business, for which 
other members could probably be found equally well 
qualified. 

The eventful year of 1776 set in, and brought with 
it a new aspect, one of more energy, and with motives 
and objects more decided and apparent. " Eighteen 
months," says an able writer, " had passed away, since 
the colonists had learned by the entrenchments at Bos- 
ton, that a resort to arms was an event not beyond the 
contemplation of the British ministry ; nearly a year 
had elapsed, since the fields of Concord and Lexington 
had been stained with hostile blood ; during this inter- 
val armies had been raised, vessels of war had been 
equipped, fortifications had been erected, gallant ex- 
ploits had been performed, and eventful battles had 
been lost and won ; yet still were the provinces bound 
to their British brothers by the ties of a similar allegi- 
ance ; still did they look upon themselves as members 
of the same empire, subjects of the same sovereign, and 
partners in the same constitution and laws. They ac- 
knowledged, that the measures they had adopted were 
not the result of choice, but the exercise of a right, if 
not a duty, resulting from this very situation ; they 
confessed that they were engaged in a controversy pe- 
culiarly abhorrent to their affections, of which the only 
object was to restore the harmony formerly existing be- 
tween the two countries, and to establish it on so firm 
a basis as to perpetuate its blessings uninterrupted by 
4* 



54 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

nny future dissensions to succeeding generations in 
both nations." 

But patience has its limits, though aggression and 
abuse may know no end ; and there is a period when 
the duty which man owes not only to himself but his 
posterity prohibits all further forbearance. Actuated 
by such feelings and sentiments, the Convention of 
Virginia, on the 15th of May, 1776, instructed their 
delegates in Congress to propose to that body to declare 
the colonies independent of Great Britain, and appoint- 
ed a committee to prepare a declaration of rights and 
plan of government. 

Every thing relating to so important a document as 
the Declaration of Independence must be of vital in- 
terest ; a document which assigns the reasons for the 
separation of the colonies from Great Britain : which 
appeals to heaven for the justness of their cause ; which 
bears the signatures of some of the firmest patriots that 
ever existed ; and which resulted in giving a new and 
mighty empire to the world. More particularly, in a 
work of this kind, is such notice due to a production 
which links inseparably the name of Jefferson to that 
of his country. Of its discussion from its commence- 
ment until its final adoption, we have for the first time 
a correct account in actual notes of Mr. Jefferson, late- 
ly published, and made at the time. From these notes 
we propose to make liberal extracts of the most inter- 
esting matters : the arguments of debate on each side 
are peculiarly so: and that the publick may have the 
information in a portable form. 

In Congress, Friday, June 7, 1776. The delegates 
from Virginia moved in obedience to instructions from 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 35 

their constituents, that the Congress should declare 
that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to 
be, free and independent states ; that they are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all 
political connexion between them and the state of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; 
that measures should be immediately taken for procur- 
ing the assistance of foreign powers, and a confedera- 
tion be formed to bind the colonies more closely together. 

The house being obliged to attend at that time to 
some other business, the proposition was referred to the 
next day, when the members were ordered to attend 
punctually at ten o'clock. 

Saturday, June 8th. They proceeded to take it into 
consideration, and referred it to a committee of the 
whole, into which they immediately resolved them- 
selves, and passed that day and Monday the 10th, in de- 
bating on the subject. 

It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. 
Rutledge, Dickinson, and others — 

That though they were friends to the measures 
themselves, and saw the impossibility that we should 
ever again be united with Great Britain, yet they were 
against adopting them at this time: 

That the conduct we had formerly observed was 
wise and proper now, of deferring to take any capital 
step till the voice of the people drove us into it : 

That they were our power, and without them our 
declarations could not be carried into effect : 

That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, 
Delaware, Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York) 
were not yet ripe for bidding adieu to British connex- 



36 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

ion, but that they were fast ripening, and in a short 
time would join in the general voice of America : 

That the resolution, entered into by this house on 
the 15th of May, for suppressing the exercise of all 
powers derived from the crown, had shown, by the fer- 
ment into which it had thrown these middle colonies, 
that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a 
separation from the mother country: 

That some of them had expressly forbidden their 
dele.o-ates to consent to such a declaration, and others 

o 

had given no instructions, and consequently no powers, 
to give such consent : 

That if the delegates of any particular colony had 
no power to declare such colony independent, certain 
they were, the others could not declare it for them; 
the colonies being as yet perfectly independent of 
each other : 

That the Assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting 
above stairs, their Convention would sit within a few 
days, the Convention of New York was now sitting, 
and those of the Jerseys and Delaware counties would 
meet on the Monday following, and it was probable 
these bodies would take up the question of indepen- 
dence, and would declare to their delegates the voice 
of their state: 

That if such a declaration should now be agreed 
to, these delegates must retire, and possibly their col- 
onies might secede from the Union : 

That such a secession would weaken us more than 
could be compensated by any foreign alliance : 

That in the event of such a division, foreign powers 
would either refuse to join themselves to our fortunes, 



LIFE OJ JEFFERSON. 37 

or, having us so much in their power as that desperate 
declaration would place us, they would insist on terms 
proportionably more hard and prejudicial : 

That we had little reason to expect an alliance with 
those to whom alone, as yet, we had cast our eyes :■ 

That France and Spain had reason to be jealous of 
that rising power, which would one day certainly strip 
them of all their American possessions: 

That it was more likely they should form a connex- 
ion with the British court, who, if they should find 
themselves unable otherwise to extricate themselves 
from their difficulties, would agree to a partition of our 
territories, restoring Canada to France, and the Flori- 
das to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery 
of these colonies : 

That it would not be long before we should receive 
certain information of the disposition of the French 
court, from the agent whom we had sent to Paris foi 
that purpose : 

That if this disposition should be favourable, by wait- 
ing the event of the present campaign, which we all 
hoped would be successful, we should have reason to 
expect an alliance on better terms: 

That this would in fact work no delay of any effectu- 
al aid from such ally, as, from the advance of the sea- 
son and distance of our situation, it was impossible we 
could receive any assistance during this campaign: 

That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms 
on which ^ve would form alliance, before we declared 
we would form one at all events : 

And that if these were agreed on, and our declaration of 
independence ready by the time our ambassador should 



38 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

be prepared to sail, it would be as well, as to go into that 
declaration at this day. 

On the other side, it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, 
Wythe and others, that no gentleman had argued against 
the policy or the right of separation from Britain, nor 
had supposed it possible we should ever renew our 
connexion: that they had only opposed its being now 
declared : 

That the question was not whether, by a declaration 
of independence, we should make ourselves what we 
are not ; but whether we should declare a fact which 
already exists : 

That as to the people or parliament of England, we 
had always been independent of them, their restraints 
on our trade deriving efficacy from our acquiescence 
only, and not from any rights they possessed of impos- 
ing them, and that so far our connexion had been fed- 
eral only, and was now dissolved by the commencement 
of hostilities: 

That, as to the King, we had been bound to him by al- 
legiance, but that this bond was now dissolved by his 
assent to the late act of Parliament, by which he de- 
clares us out of his protection, and by his levying war 
on us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of his 
protection ; it being a certain position in law, that allegi- 
ance and protection are reciprocal, the one ceasing 
when the other is withdrawn: 

That James the II. never declared the people of 
England out of his protection; yet his actions proved 
it, and the parliament declared it: 

No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a 
power of declaring an existent truth; 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 39 

That the delegates from the Delaware counties hav- 
ing declared their constituents ready to join, there are 
only two' colonies, Pennsylvania and Maryland, whose 
delegates are absolutely tied up, and that these had, by 
their instructions, only reserved a right of confirming 
or rejecting the measure: 

That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be 
accounted for from the times in which they were drawn, 
near a twelvemonth ago, since which the face of affairs 
has totally changed : 

That within that time, it had become apparent that 
Britain was determined to accept nothing less than a 
carte-blanche, and that the King's answer to the Lord 
Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of London, 
which had come to hand four days ago, must have sat- 
isfied every one of this point: 

That the people wait for us to lead the way: 

That they are in favour of the measure, though 
the instructions given by some of their representatives 
are not : 

That the voice of the representatives is not always 
consonant with the voice of the people, and that this is 
remarkably the case in these middle colonies : 

That the effect of the resolution of the 15th of May 
has proved this, which, raising the murmurs of some 
in the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland, called 
forth the opposing voice of the freer part of the people, 
and proved them to be the majority even in these colo- 
nies : 

That the backwardness of these two colonies might 
be ascribed partly to the influence of proprietary pow- 



40 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

er and connexions, and partly to their having not yet 
been attacked by the enemy : 

That these causes were not likely to be soon remov- 
ed, as there seemed no probability that the enemy would 
make either of these the seat of this summer's war : 

That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months 
for perfect unanimity, since it was impossible that all 
men should ever become of one sentiment on any ques- 
tion: 

That the conduct of some colonies, from the begin- 
ning of this contest, had given reason to suspect it was 
their settled policy to keep in the rear of the confeder- 
acy, that their particular prospect might be better, even 
in the worst event : 

That, therefore, it was necessary for those colonies 
who had thrown themselves forward and hazarded all 
from the beginning, to come forward now also, and put 
all again to their own hazard : 

That the history of the Dutch revolution, of whom 
three states only confederated at first, proved that a se- 
cession of some colonies would not be so dangerous as 
some apprehended : 

That a declaration of independence alone could ren- 
der it consistent with European delicacy, for European 
powers to treat with us, or even to receive an ambassa- 
dor from us : 

That till this, they wculd not receive our vessels in- 
to their ports, nor acknowledge the adjudications of our 
courts of admiralty to be legitimate, in cases of capture 
of Britisji vessels : 

That though France and Spain may be jealous of 
our rising power, they must think it will be much more 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 41 

formidable with the addition of Great Britain ; and will 
therefore see it their interest to prevent a coalition ; but 
should they refuse, we shall be but where we are ; 
whereas, without trying-, we shall never know wheth- 
er they will aid us or not : 

That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, and 
therefore we had better propose an alliance while our 
affairs wear a hopeful aspect : 

That to wait the event of this campaign will certain- 
ly work delay, because, during this summer, France 
may assist us effectually, by cutting off those supplies 
of provisions from England and Ireland, on which the 
enemy's army here are to depend : or by setting in 
motion the great power they have collected in the West 
Indies, and calling our enemy to the defence of the 
possessions they have there : 

That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms 
of alliance, till we had first determined we should enter 
into alliance : 

That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a 
trade for our people, who will want clothes ; and will 
want money too, for the payment of taxes : 

And that the only misfortune is, that we did not en- 
ter into alliance wath France six months sooner, as, be- 
sides opening her ports for the vent of our last year's 
produce, she might have marched an army into Ger- 
many, and prevented the petty princes there from sell- 
ing their unhappy subjects to subdue us. 

It appearing, in the course of these debates, that the 

colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, were not yet 

matured for falling from the parent stem, but that they 

5 



42 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

were fast advancing to that state, it was thonglit most 
prudent to wait awhile for them, and to postpone the 
final decision to July 1st : but, that this might occasion 
as little delay as possible, a committee was appointed 
to prepare a declaration of independence. The com- 
mittee were John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sher- 
man, Robert R. Livingston, and myself Committees 
were also appointed, at the same time, to prepare a plan 
of confederation for the colonies, and to state the terms 
proper to be proposed for foreign alliance. The com- 
mittee for drawing the declaration of independence de- 
sired me to do it. It was accordingly done, and being 
approved by them, I reported it to the house on Friday 
the 28th of June, when it was read and ordered to lie on 
the table. On Monday, the 1st of July, the House re- 
solved itself into a committee of the whole, and resumed 
the consideration of the original motion made by the 
delegates of Virginia, which being again debated 
through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the 
votes of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina and Penn- 
sylvania voted against it. Delaware had but two 
members present, and they were divided. The 
delegates from New York declared they were for 
it themselves, and were assured their constituents 
were for it ; but that their instructions having 
been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when re- 
conciliation was still the general object, they were 
enjoined by them to do nothing which should impede 
that object. They therefore thought themselves not 
justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 4S 

withdraw from the question, which was given them. 
The committee rose and reported their resolution to the 
house. Mr. Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
then requested the determination might be put off to 
the next day, as he believed his colleagues, though 
they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in 
it for the sake of unanimity. The ultimate question, 
whether the house would agree to the resolution of the 
committee, was accordingly postponed to the next day, 
when it was again moved, and South Carolina concur- 
red in voting for it. In the mean time, a third member 
had come post from the Delaware counties, and turned 
the vote of that colony in favour of the resolution. — 
Members of a different sentiment attending that morn- 
ing from Pennsylvania also, her vote was changed, so 
that the whole twelve colonies, who were authorized 
to vote at all, gave their voices for it ; and within a few 
days the Convention of New York approved of it, and 
thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of 
her delegates from the vote. 

Congress proceeded the same day to consider the 
Declaration of Independence, which had been reported 
and laid on the table the Friday preceding, and on 
Monday referred it to a committee of the whole. The 
pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England 
worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of 
many. For this reason, those passages which convey- 
ed censure on the people of England were struck out, 
lest they should give them offence. The clause too, 
reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, 
was struck out, in compliance to South Carolina and 
Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the ini' 



44 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

portation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wish- 
ed to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I be- 
lieve, felt a little tender under those censures ; for though 
their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they 
had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others. 
The debates having taken up the greater part of the 
2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, were, on the evening of 
the last, closed ; the declaration was reported by the 
committee, agreed to by the house, and signed by eve- 
ry member present, except Mr. Dickinson. 

The declaration as it was originally presented to 
Congress, and as it was subsequently published to the 
world, is here given, as peculiarly proper to be inserted 
in a memoir of its illustrious author ; marking in itah 
icks the words which were erased by Congress, and in- 
troducing between brackets the additions and substitu- 
tions that were made before it received the sanction of 
that body. It is as follows : 

" When, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
which have connected them with another, and to as- 
sume among the powers of the earth the separate and 
equal station to which the laws of nature and of na- 
ture's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opin- 
ions of mankind requires that they should declare the 
causes which impel them to the separation. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all 
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with [certain] inherent and inalienable rights; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 45 

piness ; that to secure these rights, governments are 
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from 
the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form 
of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to in- 
stitute new government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as 
to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety 
and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that 
governments long established should not be changed 
for light and transient causes ; and accordingly, all ex- 
perience hath shown that mankind are more disposed 
to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
selves by abolishing the forms to which they are ac- 
customed. But when a long train of abuses and usur- 
pations, hegun at a distant period and pursuing 
invariably the same object, evinces a design to re- 
duce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to 
provide new guards for their future security. Such 
has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and 
such is now the necessity which constrains them to 
[alter] expunge their former systems of government. 
'* The history of the present King of Great Britain 
is a history of [repeated] unremitting injuries and 
usurpations, among which appears no solitary fact 
to contradict the uniform tenour of the rest ; hut all 
have [all having] in direct object, the establishment of 
an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, 
let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth 
of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by fals6^ 
hood, 

5* 



46 LIFE OF JEFFERSON". 

" He has refused his assent to laws the most whole- 
some and necessary for the publick good. 

" He has forbidden his Governours to pass laws of 
immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended 
in their operation till his assent should be obtained : 
and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to 
attend to them. 

" He has refused to pass other laws for the accom- 
modation of large districts of people, unless those 
people would relinquish the right of representation in 
the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formi- 
dable to tyrants only. 

" He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository 
of their publick records, for the sole purpose of fa- 
tiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

" He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly 
and continually, for opposing with manly firmness 
his invasions on the rights of the people. 

" He has refused, for a long time after such dissolu- 
tions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legis- 
lative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned 
to the people at large for their exercise ; the state re- 
maining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of 
invasion from without and convulsions within. 

" He has endeavoured to prevent the population of 
these states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for 
naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to 
encourage their migrations hither ; and raising the con- 
ditions of new appropriations of lands. 

" He has suffered [obstructed] the administration of 
justice totally to cease in some of these states, [by} 



LIFE or JEFFERSON. 47 

refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary 
powers. 

" He has made our judges dependent on his will 
alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount 
and payment of their salaries. 

" He has erected a multitude of new offices, by a 
self-assumed power, and sent hither swarms of officers 
to harass our people, and eat out their substance, 

" He has kept among us in times of peace, standing 
armies and ships of war, without the consent of our 
legislatures. 

" He has aifected to render the military independent 
of and superiour to the civil power. 

" He has combined with others to subject us to a 
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unac- 
knowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their 
acts of pretended legislation : 

" For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us : 

" For protecting them, by mock trial, from punish- 
ment for any murders which they should commit on 
the inhabitants of these states : 

" For cutting off our trade with all parts of the" 
world : 
" For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

" For depriving us [in many cases] of the benefits 
of trial by jury : 

" For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for 
pretended offences : 

" For abolishing the free system of English laws in 
a neighbouring province, establishing therein an ar- 
bitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, sa 



t 

48 LIFE or JEFFEKSON. 

as to render it at once an example and fit instrument 
for introducing the same absolute rule into these states 
[colonies :] 

" For taking away our charters, abolishing our 
most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the 
forms of our governments : 

" For suspending our own legislatures, and declar- 
ing themselves invested with power to legislate for us 
in all cases whatsoever : 

" He has abdicated government here, withdrawing 
his Governours, and [by] declaring us out of his 
allegiance and protection, [and waging war against 
us :] 

" He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, 
burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our peo- 
ple : 

" He is at this time transporting large armies of 
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, 
desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circum- 
stances of cruelty and perfidy, [scarcely paralleled in 
the most barbarous ages, and totally] unworthy the 
head of a civilized nation. 

"He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive 
on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to 
become the executioners of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 

" He has [excited domestick insurrections among us, 
and has] endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of 
our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- 
tion of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence. 

" He has incited treasonable insurrections of ouf 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 49 

fellow citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture 
and confiscation of our property. 

''He has waged cruel war against human nature 
itself violating its most sacred rights of life and 
liberty in the persons of a distant people who never 
offended him, captivating and carrying them into 
slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserd- 
hie death in their transportation thither. This 
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel pow- 
ers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great 
Britain. Determined to keep open a market where 
MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted 
his negative for suppressing every legislative at- 
tempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable com- 
merce. And that this assemblage of horrours might 
want no fact of distinguished die, he is now ex- 
citing those very people to rise in arms among us, 
and to purchase that liberty of which he has depri- 
ved them, by murdering the people on whom he also 
obtruded them : thus paying off former crimes com- 
mitted against the liberties of one people, with 
crimes which he urges them to commit against the 
lives of another. 

" In every stage of these oppressions, we have peti- 
tioned for redress in the most humble terms : our re- 
peated petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injuries. 

" A prince whose character is thus marked by every 
act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of 
a [free] people who mean to be free. Future ages 
will scarcely believe that the hardiness of one man 
adventured, within the short compass of twelve- 



50 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

years only, to lay a foundation so broad and so un- 
disguised for tyranny over a people fostered and 
fixed in principles of freedom. 

" Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our 
British brethren. We have warned them from time 
to time of attempts by their legislature to extend [an 
unwarrantable] a jurisdiction over [us] these our 
states. We have reminded them of the circumstan- 
ces of our emigration and settlement here, no one of 
which could warrant so strange a pretension : that 
these were effected at the expense of our own blood 
and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the 
strength of Great Britain : that in constituting in- 
deed our several forms of government, we had 
adopted one common King, thereby laying a foun- 
dation for perpetual league and amity with them: 
hut that submission to their parliament was no part 
of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may 
be credited : and we [have] appealed to their native 
justice and magnanimity as well as to [and we have 
conjured them by] the ties of our common kindred, to 
disavow these usurpations, which were likely to [would 
inevitably] interrupt our connexion and correspond- 
ence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice 
and of consanguinity ; and when occasions have been 
given them, by the regular course of their laws, of 
removing from their councils the disturbers of our 
harmony, they have, by their free election, re-estab- 
lished them in power. At this very time, too, they 
are permitting their chief magistrate to send over 
not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch 
and foreign mercenaries, to invade and destroy us^ 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 51 

JViese facts have given the last stab to agonizing 
affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce for 
ever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavour 
to for get our former love for them, and hold them as 
we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war ; in 
peace, friends. We might have been a free and a 
great people together; but a communication of 
grandeur and of freedom,, it seems, is below their 
dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The 
road to happiness and to glory is open to us too. 
We will tread it apart from them, and [we must 
therefore] acquiesce in the necessity which denounces 
our eternal separation, [and hold them as we hold the 
rest of mankind, enemies in war; in peace, friends!] 
"We, therefore, the representatives of the United 
States of America, in General Congress assembled, 
[appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
rectitude of our intentions,] do in the name and by the 
authority of the good people of these states, [colonies,] 
reject and renounce all allegiance and subjection 
to the Kings of Great Britain, and all others who 
may hereafter claim by, through, or under them ; 
we utterly dissolve all political connexion which 
may heretofore have subsisted between us and the 
parliament of Great Britain ; and finally, we do 
assert [solemnly publish and declare] that these Uni- 
ted Colonies are, [and of right ought to be,] free and 
independent states ; [that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British crown, and that a]l political 
connexion between them and the state of Great Britain 
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved:] and that, as free 
and independent states, they have full power to levy 



52 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and to do all other acts and things which inde- 
pendent states may of right do. 

"And for the support of this declaration, [with a firm 
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,] we 
mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes,, 
and our sacred honour." 

The Declaration thus signed on the 4th on paper, was 
engrossed on parchment, and signed again on the 2d 
of August. 

Such was this famous declaration of the indepen- 
dence of the United States of America, which, necessa- 
ry as it appears to have been, says Botta, was not, how- 
ever, exempt from peril : for although the greater part 
of America perceived that the course of things must have 
led to this extremity, there were still many who openly 
manifested contrary sentiments. And they were, un- 
fortunately, more numerous in the provinces menaced 
by Great Britain than in any other. The American 
armies were feeble, the treasury poor, foreign succours 
uncertain, and the ardour of the people might abate all 
at once. 

It was known that England was determined to exert 
all her forces for the reduction of the colonies, before 
they should have time to become confirmed in their re- 
bellion, or to form alliances with foreign powers. If 
the American arms, as there was but too much reason 
to fear, should prove unfortunate in the ensuing cam- 
paign, it could not be disguised that the people would 
lay it to the charge of independence; and that, accord- 
ing to the ordinary operations of the human mind, they 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 53 

would rapidly retrogade towards the opinions they had 
abjured. When despair once begins, the prostration 
of energy follows as its immediate consequence. But 
the war was inevitable, all arrangement impossible, 
and the Congress urged by necessity to take a decisive 
resolution. On every side they saw dangers, but they 
preferred to brave them for the attainment of a deter- 
minate object, rather than trust any longer to the un- 
certain hope of the repeal of the laws against which 
they were in arms. 

For it was even difficult to designate which of these 
•laws were to be revoked. Some desired to have all 
those repealed which had been passed since the year 
1763; others only proscribed a part of them; and there 
were still others whom a total abrogation would not 
have satisfied, and who wished also for the abolition 
of some ancient statutes. In the heat of debates, pro- 
positions had been advanced to which it was impossi- 
ble that Great Britain should ever consent. Nor can 
it be denied, that the declaration of independence Avas 
conformable to the nature of things. Circumstances 
wouliJ not have endured much longer, that a people 
like that of America, numerous, wealthy, warlike, 
and accustomed to liberty, should depend upon ano- 
ther at a great distance, and little superiour in powder. 
The English ministry could not shut their eyes to it ; 
and such, perhaps, was the secret reason of their ob- 
duracy in attempting to load their colonies with heavier 
chains. It is also certain, that foreign princes would 
not have consented to succour, or to receive into their 
alliance, a people who acknowledged themselves the 
subjects ; whereas it might be expected that they would 
6 



54 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

unite to those of a nation, determined, at all hazards, 
to obtain the recog-nition of its liberty and independ- 
ence. In the first case, even victory would not have 
given allies to the Americans ; in the second, they 
were assured of them only by showing themselves re- 
solved to sustain their cause with arms in hand. 

And none Avere more sensible of the difficulties and 
dangers which surrounded them than the heroick men 
who had affixed their signatures, either to their coun- 
try's success, or their own destruction. Dr. Thacher, 
in his Military Journal, relates a circumstance which 
may show the acuteness of their feelings, though dis- 
guised under the sportive bitterness of raillery. " Mr. 
Harrison, a delegate from Virginia," writes the doc- 
tor, "is a large portly man. Mr. Gerry, of Massachu- 
setts, is slender and spare. A little time after the sol- 
emn transaction of signing the instrument, Mr. Har- 
rison said smilingly to Mr. Gerry — ' w^hen the hanging 
scene comes to be exhibited, I shall have the advantage 
over you on account of my size: all will be over With 
me in a moment, but you will be kicking in the air a 
half an hour after I am gone.' " 

But, as to the disposition of the people themselves, 
the reception given to this celebrated paper on its pro- 
mulgation, must have justified the hopes of the most 
ardent, and dispelled the fears of the most timid. It 
was every w^here hailed with joy, gladness, and enthu- 
siasm ; and the most cautious, if they allowed the cer- 
tainty of an impending struggle, admitted its necessity 
and its great advantage. Nor were there any of those 
publick dem.onstrations omitted which governments 
are accustomed to employ on similar occasions, to con- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 55 

ciliate the favour of the people to their determination. 
Independence was proclaimed, with great solemnity, 
at Philadelphia, the 8th of July. The artillery was 
fired, bonfires were kindled; the people seemed actu- 
ally delirious with exultation. On the 1 1th, the mani- 
festo of Congress was published in New York, and 
was read to each brigade of the American army, which, 
at that time, was assembled in the vicinity of the city : 
it was received with universal acclamations. The same 
evening, the statue of King George III., which had 
been erected in 1770, was taken down, and dragged 
through the streets by the sons of liberty. It was 
decided that the lead of which it was composed should 
be converted into musket balls. These excesses, if 
blameable in themselves, were not without utility if 
considered politically: they excited the people, and 
hurried them on to the object that was desired. At 
Baltimore, independence having been proclaimed in 
the presence of cannoniers and militia, the people 
could not contain their enthusiasm. The air resound- 
ed with salutes of artillery, and the shouts that hailed 
the freedom and happiness of the United States of 
America. The effigy of the King became the sport of 
tlie populace, and was afterwards burnt in the publick 
S(juare. 

But, according to description, and the concurrent 
testimony of Dr. Thacher, who was there at the time, 
the rejoicings at Boston were the greatest of all. In- 
dependence was there proclaimed from the balcony of 
the state house, in the presence of all the authorities, 
civil and military, and of an immense concourse of 
people, as well from the city itself, as from the country. 



56 LIFE OF JEFFERSOSr. 

The garrison was drawn up in order of battle in King 
street, which, from that moment, took the name of 
State street; the troops formed in thirteen detach- 
ments, to denote the thirteen United States. At a given 
signal, a salute of thirteen cannon was fired upon Fort 
Hill, which was immediately answered by an equal 
number from the batteries of the Castle, of the Neck» 
of Nantasket, and of Point Alderton. The g^rrison^ 
in their turn, fired thirteen salutes of musketry, each 
detachment firing- in succession. The authorities and 
most considerable inhabitants then convened at a ban- 
quet prepared in the council chamber, where they 
drank toasts to the perpetuity and prosperity of the 
United States, to the American Congress, to General* 
Washington,, to the success of the arms of the con^ 
federacy, to the destruction of tyrants, to t?he propaga^ 
tion of civil and religious liberty, and to the friends of 
the United States in all parts of the world. All the 
bells rung in token of felicitation ; the joy was univer- 
sal, and its demonstrations were incessantly renewed. 
In the evening, all the ensigns of royalty, lions, scep- 
tres or crowns, whether sculptured or paijited, wera 
torn in pieces, and burnt in State street' 

But in Virginia, according to a celebrated author, it 
would be impossible to describe the exuhation that was 
manifested. 

The Virginia Convention decreed that the name of 
the King should be suppressed in all the publick pray- 
ers. They ordained that the great seal of the com- 
monwealth of Virginia should represent Virtue as the 
tutelary genius of the province, robed in the drapery o>C 
an amazon, resting one hand upon her lance, and holdr 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 57 

ing with the other a sword, trampling upon tyranny, 
under the figure of a prostrate man, having near him a 
crown fallen from his head, and bearing in one hand 
a broken chain, and in the other a scourge. At the 
foot was charactered the word "Virginia," and round 
the effigy of Virtue, was inscribed, " Sic semper tyran- 
nis.^^ The reverse represented a group of figures; 
in the middle stood Liberty, with her wand and cap ; 
on one side was Ceres, with the horn of plenty in the 
right hand, and a sheaf of wheat in the left ; upon the 
other appeared Eternity, with the globe and the phoe- 
nix. At the foot were found these words, " Deus 
nobis hcEc otia fccitP 

In the midst of these transports, nothing was forgotten 
that might tend to inspire the people with affection for 
the new order of things, and a violent hatred not only 
towards tyranny, but also against monarchy ; the for- 
mer being considered as the natural result from the 
latter. 

Thus, on the one hand, the American patriots, by 
their secret combinations, and then by a daring resolu- 
tion ; and on the other, the British ministers, at first by 
oppressive laws, and afterwards by hesitating counsels, 
gave origin to a crisis which eventually produced the 
dismemberment of a splendid and powerful empire. 
So constant are men in the pursuits of liberty, and so 
obstinate in ambition. 

Paul Allen, in his History of the Revolution, re- 
marks : "The declaration of independence, once pub- 
lished to the world with such solemnity, gave a new 
*ttharacter to the conte t, not only in the colonies, but in 
Europe. Before this decisive step, the American peo- 
6* 



58 Life of jefferson. 

pie were regarded by many able and good men as well 
as sound politicians, on both sides of the Atlantick, 
rather as children struggling for doubtful privileges 
with a parent, than as men contending w4th men for 
their natural and undisputable rights. 

But this deliberate appeal to the nations of the earth, 
to posterity, and to the God of battles, gave a new po- 
litical character, an immediate dignity and manhood, 
to their cause. It was no longer the unholy struggle 
of subjects against their monarch — of children against 
their parent — of rash and turbulent men who never 
measure nor weigh the consequences of their deeds : 
it was no longer a contest for mere matters of opinion, 
but for a national existence^for life or death. It be- 
came, under the awful sanction of that assembly, the 
temperate and determined stand of men who had en- 
trenched themselves within the certain and thoroughly 
understood limits of their rights-<-of men who had 
counted the cost dispassionately, and measured the event 
without shrinking — of men who felt, deliberated, and 
acted as the representatives of a whole people, conscious 
of their infirmities and their responsibility, knowing the 
might of their adversaries and the weakness of their 
friends, but determined to do their duty to their children, 
and leave them their inheritance undisturbed and unim- 
paired. Or if that might not be, and the liberties of 
Englishmen were no longer the protection of their 
wives or the birthright of their children, to leave them 
as widows and orphans to the charity of Heaven." 

The, declaration of independence was, of itself, a 
victory — a victory over the passions, prejudices, and 
fears of a multitude. It drew a line for ever, between 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 59 

tlie friends and the foes of America. It left no neu- 
trals. He who was not for independence, uncondition-- 
al independence, was an enemy. The effect produ- 
ced on the publick mind by the boldness and unanimity 
manifested on this occasion by the delegates of the 
several colonies, operated on the general confidence of 
the people as much as a similar declaration would have 
done, had it been adopted and signed by the whole pop- 
ulation of the states. In the publick exultation at the 
time, the murmurs of disapprobation were unheard, 
and the opposition to be expected from the discontented 
and factious, who were always a formidable minority, 
and in the very bosom of the country, was entirely 
overlook eri. 



60 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER II. 

It is one of the inconsistencies of human nature, that 
the British parliament should claim that authority over, 
and impress those burdens on the colonists, against 
which, when applied to themselves, they had murmur- 
ed, protested, and rebelled. There cannot be a more 
striking parallel, than between the English revolution 
of 1683, and the North American revolution of 1776. In 
both cases, previous discussion had fairly put the dispu- 
ted question in issue ; each party to the dispute had ful- 
ly weighed and settled its principles, its claims, and its 
duties ; the people of England and the people of Amer- 
ica were in both cases on the defensive ; not aiming at 
establishing new rights, or setting up new pretensions 
against old established despotism, but defending against 
encroachment on liberties which they had always en- 
joyed, and seeking new guarantees to secure them. — 
Broken charters, insulted legislatures, and violated ju- 
diciaries, arbitrary acts defended by arbitrary princi- 
ples, and injustice supported by violence, drove the 
English nation in 1688, and the English colonies in 
1776, to declare that the respective sovereigns had ab- 
dicated the government. 

The American revolution was complete in 1776, but 
it still remained to defend it by arras. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON". 61 

On Friday, July 12, 1776, the committee appointed to 
draw the articles of confederation between the thirteen 
states, reported them to Congress; and on the 22d, the 
house resolved themselves into a committee to take them 
into consideration. The institution of new govern- 
ment by a people reeking from tyranny and oppression, 
is a sight, which, whilst it engages the solicitous atten- 
tion of the patriot and philanthropist, is no less calcu- 
lated to alarm their fears. Smarting from their wrongs, 
and still fresh in their indignation, it is to be apprehend- 
ed that every curb of restraint will be removed, and 
that liberty may degenerate into violence or licentious- 
ness. The French revolution reads a most terrifick 
lesson on this subject. It was not so with those hero- 
ick men w^ho had just placed their hands to the Decla- 
ration of Independence; and the articles of confedera- 
tion, if they do not guard against every evil, or provide 
for every future contingency, were yet the result of 
virtue and wisdom, and calculated for the promotion 
of rational freedom. The notes of Mr. Jefferson con- 
tain the earlier debates on some of these articles ; and 
as circumstances connected with the infant government 
of the country, and as displaying the powers of the 
most prominent men in it, to these notes we shall again 
have reference.* 

On the 30th and 31st of that month, (July,) and 1st 
of the ensuing, those articles were debated which de- 



* The course of deliberation was conducted with profound 
secrecy, and no other record now remains of that wisdom and 
intelligence, of that capacious and accurate view of political 
science and ethical philosophy, which a discussion of the prin- 
ciples of government must have drawn forth from the siccoiii- 
plished civilians who were members of that Congress, 



62 LIFE or JEFFERSON. 

termined the proportion, or quota, of money which each, 
state should furnish to the common treasury, and the 
manner of voting in Congress. The first of these ar- 
ticles was expressed in the original draught in these 
words: "Art. XI. All charges of war, and all other 
expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, 
or general welfare, and allowed by the United States 
assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, 
which shall be supplied by the several colonies in pro- 
portion to the number of inhabitants of every age, sex, 
and quality, except Indians not paying taxes in each 
colony, a true account of which, distinguishing the 
white inhabitants, shall be triennially taken and trans- 
mitted to the Assembly of the United States." 

Mr. Chase moved that the quotas should be fixed, 
not by the number of inhabitants of every condition, 
but by that of the white inhabitants. He admitted that 
taxation should be always in proportion to property; 
that this was, in theory, the true rule ; but that, from a 
variety of difficulties, it was a rule which could never 
be adopted in practice. The value of the property in 
every state, could never be estimated justly and equally. 
Some other measures for the wealth of the state must 
therefor-e be devised, some standard referred to, which 
would be more simple. He considered the number of 
inhabitants as a tolerably good criterion of property, 
and that this might always be obtained. He therefore 
thought it the best mode which we could adopt, with 
one exception only: he observed that negroes are prop- 
erty, and, as such, cannot be distinguished from the 
lands or personalities held in those states where there 
are few slaves: that the surplus of profit which a north- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 63 

ern farmer is able to lay by, he invests in cattle, horses, 
&c. : whereas a southern farmer lays out the same sur- 
plus in slaves. There is no more reason, therefore, for 
taxing the southern states on the farmer's head, and on 
his slave's head, than the northern states on their farm- 
ers' heads and the heads of their cattle : that the method 
proposed would, therefore, tax the southern states ac- 
cording to their numbers and their wealth conjunctly, 
while the northern would be taxed on numbers only ; 
that negroes, in fact, -should not be considered as mem- 
bers of the state more than cattle, and that they have no 
more interest in it. 

Mr. John Adams observed, that the numbers of peo- 
ple were taken by this article as an index of the wealth 
of the state, and not as subjects of taxation ; that, as to 
this matter, it was of no consequence by what name 
you called your people, whether by that of freemen or 
of slaves ; that in some countries the labouring poor 
were called freemen, in others they were called slaves ; 
but that the difference as to the state was imaginary 
only. What matters it whether a landlord employing 
ten labourers on his farm, gives them annually as much 
money as will buy them the necessaries of life, or 
gives them those necessaries at shorthand. The ten 
labourers add as much wealth annually to the state, 
increase its exports as much, in the one case as the 
other. Certainly five hundred freemen produce no 
more profits, no greater surplus for the payment of tax- 
es, than five hundred slaves. Therefore, the state in 
which are the labourers called freemen, should be tax- 
ed no more than that in which are those called slaves. 
Suppose, by an extraordinary operation of nature or of 



64 LIFB OF JEFFERSON. 

law, one half the labourers of a state could, in the course 
of one night, be transformed into slaves : would the state 
be made the poorer, or the less able to pay taxes ? — 
That the condition of the labouring poor in most coun- 
tries, that of the fishermen, particularly of the northern 
states, is as abject as that of slaves. It is the number 
of labourers which produces the surplus for taxation, and 
numbers, therefore, indiscriminately, are the fair index 
of wealth : that it is the use of the word property here, 
and its application to some of the people of the state, 
which produces the fallacy. How does the southern 
farmer procure slaves? Either by importation or by 
purchase from his neighbour. If he imports a slave, 
he adds one to the number of labourers in his country, 
and proportionably to its profits and abilities to pay tax- 
es ; if he buys from his neighbour, it is only a transfer 
of a labourer from one farm to another, which does not 
change the annual produce of the state, and therefore, 
should not change its tax ; that if a northern farmer 
works ten labourers on his farm, he can, it is true, in- 
vest the surplus of ten men's labour in cattle ; but so 
may the southern farmer, working ten slaves ; that a 
state of one hundred thousand freemen can maintain 
no more cattle than one of one hundred thousand 
slaves : therefore, they have no more of that kind of 
property ; that a slave may, indeed, from the custom of 
speech, be more properly called the wealth of his mas- 
ter, than the free labourer might be called the wealth 
of his employer .; but as to the state, both were equally 
its wealth, and should, therefore, equally add to the quo- 
ta of its tax. 

Mr. Harrison proposed, as a compromise, that two 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 65 

slaves should be counted as one freeman. He affirm- 
ed that slaves did not do as much vs^ork as freemen, 
and doubted if two effected more than one; that this 
was proved by the price of labour : the hire of a la- 
bourer in the southern colonies being from £S to £12, 
while in the northern it was generally £24: 

Mr. Wilson said, that if this amendment should take 
place, the southern colonies would have all the bene- 
fit of slaves, whilst the northern ones would bear the 
burden; that slaves increase the profits of a state, which 
the southern states mean to take to themselves ; that 
they also increase the burden of defence, which would 
of course fall so much the heavier on the northern; that 
slaves occupy the places of freemen and eat their food. 
Dismiss your slaves, and freemen will take their places. 
It is our duty to lay every discouragement on the im- 
portation of slaves ; but this amendment would give the 
jus trium liheroruinio him who would import slaves; 
that other kinds of property were pretty equally dis- 
tributed through all the colonies : there were as many 
cattle, horses, and sheep, in the north as the south, and 
south as the north, but not so as to slaves ; that expe- 
rience has shown that those colonies have been always 
able to pay most, which have the most inhabitants, 
whether they be black or white: and the practice of 
the southern colonies has always been to make every 
farmer pay poll taxes upon all his labourers, whether 
they be black or white. He acknowledges, indeed, 
that freemen work the most; but they consume the 
most also. They do not produce a greater surplus for 
taxation. The slave is neither fed nor clothed so ex- 
pensively as a freeman. Again ; white women are ex- 
7 



66 LIFE OF JEFFfiRSOJr. 

empted from labour generally, but negro women are nof^ 
In this, then, the southern states have an advantage, as 
the article now stands. It has sometimes been said 
that slavery is necessary, because the commodities they 
raise would be too dear for market if cultivated by free- 
men: but now it is said that the labour of the slave 
is the dearest. 

Mr. Payne urged the original resolution of Con- 
gress, to proportion the quotas of the states to the num^ 
ber of souls. 

Dr. Witherspoon was of opinion, that the value of 
lands and houses was the best estimate of the wealth of 
a nation, and that it was practicable to obtain such a 
valuation. This is the true barometer of wealth. The 
one now proposed is imperfect in itself and unequal 
between the states. It has been objected that negroes 
eat the food of freemen, ^nd therefore should be taxed; 
horses also eat the food of freemen: therefore they 
also should be taxed. It has been said, too, that in 
carrying slaves -into the estimate of the taxes the state 
is to pay, we do no more than those states themselves 
do, who always take slaves into the estimate of the 
taxes the individual is to pay. But the cases are not 
parallel. In the southern colonies, slaves pervade the 
whole colony : but they do not pervade the whole 
continent. That as to the original resolution of Con- 
gress, to proportion the quotas according to the souls, 
it was temporary only, and related to the moneys here- 
tofore emitted: whereas we are now entering into a 
new compact, and therefore stand on original ground. 

August 1. The question being put, the amendment 
proposed was rejected by the votes of New Hampshire, 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 67 

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ; against those of Del> 
aware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina. 
Ceorgia was divided. 

The other article Avas in these words : " Art. XVII. 
In determining questions, each colony shall have one 
Fote." 

July 30, 31, August 1. Present, forty-one members, 
Mr. Chase observed, that this article was the most 
likely to divide us, of any one proposed in the draught 
then under consideration ; that the larger colonies had 
threatened they would not confederate at all, if their 
weight in Congress should not be equal to the numbers 
of people they added to the confederacy: while the 
smaller ones declared against a union, if they did not 
retain an equal vote for the protection of their rights. 
That it was of the utmost consequence to bring the 
parties together, as, should we sever from each other, 
either no foreign power will ally with us at all, or the 
different states will form different alliances, and thus 
iincrease the horrours of those scenes of civil war and 
bloodshed, which, in such a state of separation and 
independence, would render us a miserable people. — 
That our importance, our interests, our peace, required 
that we should confederate, and that mutual sacrifices 
should be made to effect a compromise of this difficult 
question. He was of opinion, the smaller colonies 
would lose their rights, if they were not, in some in- 
fitancea, allowed an equal vote ; and therefore that a 
discrimination should take place among the questions 
which would come before Congress. That the smaller 
states should be secured in all questions concerning 



68 LIFE OF JEFFERSON* 

life or liberty, hnd the greater ones in all respecting' 
property. He therefore proposed, that in votes relating- 
to money, the voice of each colony should be propor- 
tioned to the number of its inhabitants." 

Dr. Franklin thought, that the votes should be so 
proportioned in all cases. He took notice that the 
Delaware counties had bound up their delegates to dis- 
agree to this article. He thought it a very extraordi- 
nary language to be held by any state, that they would 
not confederate w^th us unless w^e would let them dis- 
pose of our money. Certainly, if we vote equally, we 
ought to pay equally ; but the smaller states will hard- 
ly purchase the privilege at this price. That had he 
lived in a state where the representation, originally 
equal, had become unequal by time and accident, he 
might have submitted rather than disturb govern- 
ment ; but that w^e should be very wrong to set out in 
this practice, when it is in our power to establish what 
is right. That at the time of the union between Eng- 
land and Scotland, the latter had made the objection 
which the smaller states now do ; but experience had 
proved that no unfairness had ever been shown them ; 
that their advocates had prognosticated that it would 
again happen, as in times of old, that the whale would 
swallow Jonas, but he thought the prediction reversed 
in event, and that Jonas had swallowed the whale ; for 
the Scotch had in fact got possession of the govern- 
ment, and gave laws to the English. He reprobated 
the original agreement of Congress to vote by colonies, 
and, therefore, was for their voting, in all cases, accord- 
ing to the number of taxables. 

Dr. Witherspoon opposed every alteration of the 



IIFE OF JEFFERSON. 69 

sarticle. All men admit that a confederacy is necessary. 
Should the idea get abroad that there is likely to be 
ao union among' us, it will damp the minds of the 
people, diminish the glory of our struggle, and lessen 
its importance; because it will open to our view future 
prospects of war and dissension among ourselves. If 
an equal vote be refused, the smaller states will be- 
come vassals to the larger; and all experience has 
shown, that the vassals and subjects of free states are 
the most enslaved. He instanced the Helots of Sparta 
and the provinces of Rome. He observed that foreign 
powers, discovering this blemish, would make it a han- 
dle for disengaging the smaller states from so unequal 
a confederacy. That the colonies should, in fact, be 
considered as individuals ; and that, as such, in all 
disputes, they should have an equal vote ; that they are 
now collected as individuals making a bargain with 
each other, and, of course, had a right to vote as indi- 
viduals. That in the East India Company they voted 
by persons, and not by their proportion of stock. That 
the Belgick confederacy voted by provinces. That in 
questions of war, the smaller states were as much 
interested as the larger, and therefore should vote 
equally ; and indeed, that the larger states were more 
likely to bring war on the confederacy in proportion as 
their frontiers were more extensive. He admitted that 
equality of representation waa an excellent principle, 
but then it must be of things which are co-ordinate ; 
that is, of things similar, and of the same nature : that 
nothing relating to individuals could ever come before 
Congress : nothing but what would respect colonies; 
He distinguished between an incorporating and a 
7* 



70 LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 

federal union. The union of England was an incor* 
porating one ; yet Scotland had suffered by that union^ 
for that its inhabitants were drawn from it by the 
hopes of places and employments ; nor was it an in- 
stance of equality of representation : because, while 
Scotland was allowed nearly a thirteenth of representa- 
tion, they were to pay only one fortieth of the land tax. 
He expressed his hopes, that in the present enlight- 
ened state of men's minds, we might expect a lasting 
confederacy, if it was founded on fair principles. 

John Adams advocated the voting in proportion ta 
numbers. He said, that we stand here as the repre- 
sentatives of the people ; that in some states the people 
are many, in others they are few ; that, therefore, their 
vote here should be proportioned to the numbers from 
whom it comes. Reason, justice, and equity, never 
had weight enough on the face of the earth to govern 
the councils of men. It is interest alone which does 
it, and it is interest alone which can be trusted ; that, 
therefore, the interests within doors should be the 
mathematical representatives of the interests without 
doors ; that the individuality of the colonies is a mere 
sound. Does the individuality of a colony increase 
its wealth or numbers ? If it does, pay equally. If 
it does not add weight in the scale of the confederacy^ 
it cannot add to their rights nor weigh in argument. 
A. has dSoO, B. iS500, and C. iSlOOO in partnership. 
Is it just they should equally dispose of the moneys of 
the partnership ? It has been said we are independent 
individuals, making a bargain together : the question 
is not, what we are noAv, but what we ought to be 
when our bargain shall be made. The confederacy is? 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 71 

io make us one individual only : it is to form us, like.^ 
separate parcels of metal, into one common mass. We 
shall no longer retain our separate individuality, but 
become a single individual as to all questions submit- 
ted to the confederacy. Therefore, all those reasons 
which prove the justice and expediency of equal repre- 
sentation in other assemblies, hold good here. It has 
been objected, that a proportionable vote will endanger 
the smaller states. We answer, that an equal vote will 
endanger the larger. Virginia, Pennsylvania, and 
Massachusetts, are the three greater colonies. Con- 
sider their distance, their difference of produce, of in- 
terests, and of manners, and it is apparent they can 
never have an interest or inclination to combine for 
the oppression of the smaller ; that the smaller will 
naturally divide on all questions with the larger. — ■ 
Rhode Island, from its relation, similarity, and inter- 
course, will generally pursue the same objects with 
Massachusetts ; Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, with 
Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Rush took notice, that the decay of the liberties 
of the Dutch republick proceeded from three causes : 

1. the perfect unanimity requisite on all occasions; 

2. their obligation to consult their constituents; 3. * 
their voting by provinces. This last destroyed the 
equality of representation, and the liberties of Great 
Britain also are sinking from the same defect. That 
a part of our rights is deposited in the hands of our 
legislatures. There, it was admitted, there should be 
an equality of representation. Another part of our 
rights is deposited in the hands of Congress ; why is it 
not equally necessary, there should be an equal repre- 



72 tlFB OF JEFFERSONv 

sentation there ? Were it possible to collect the whol« 
body of the people together, they would determine the 
questions submitted to them by their majority. Why 
should not the same majority decide when voting here, 
by their representatives ? The larger colonies are so 
providentially divided in situation, as to render every 
fear of their combining visionary. Their interests 
are different, and their circumstances dissimilar. It is 
more probable they will become rivals, and leave it in 
the power of the smaller states to give preponderance 
to any scale they please. The voting by the number 
of free inhabitants, will have one excellent effect, that 
of inducing the colonies to discourage slavery, and to 
csncourage the increase of their free inhabitants. 

Mr. Hopkins observed, that there were four larger, 
four smaller, and four middle-sized colonies. That 
the four largest would contain more than half the 
inhabitants of the confederating states, and therefore 
would govern the others as they should please. That 
history affords no instance of such a thing as equal 
representation. The Germanick body votes by states. 
The Helvetick body does the same; and so does the 
Belgick confederacy. That too little is known of the 
ancient confederations, to say what was their practice. 

Mr. Wilson thought, that taxation should be in pro- 
portion to wealth, but that representation should accord 
with the number of freemen. That government is a 
collection or result of the wills of all; that^ if any 
government could speak the will of all, it would be 
perfect ; and that so far as it departs from this, it be- 
comes imperfect. It has been said, that Congress is a 
representation of states, not of individuals. I say, that 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 73 

the objects of its care are all the individuals of tho 
states. It is strange, that annexing the name of 'state' 
to ten thousand men, should give them an equal right 
with forty thousand. This must be the effect of ma- 
gick, not of reason. As to those matters which are 
referred to Congress, we are not so many states ; we 
are one large state. We lay aside our individuality 
•whenever we come here. The Germanick body is a 
burlesque on government ; and their practice on any 
point, is a sufficient authority and proof that it is wrong. 
The greatest imperfection in the constitution of tho 
Belgick confederacy is their voting by provinces. — 
The interest of the whole is constantly sacrificed to 
that of the small states. The history of the war in the 
reign of Queen Ann, sufficiently proves this. It is 
asked, shall nine colonies put it into the power of four 
to govern them as they please ? I invert the question, 
and ask, shall two millions of people put it into the 
power of one million to govern them as they please? 
It is pretended, too, that the smaller colonies will be in 
danger from the greater. Speak in honest language 
and say, the minority will be in danger from the ma- 
jority. And is there an assembly on earth, where this 
danger may not be equally pretended? The truth is, 
that our proceedings will then be consentaneous with the 
interests of the majority, and so they ought to be. 
The probability is much greater, that the larger states 
will disagree, than that they will combine. Idefy 
the wit of man to invent a possible case, or to suggest 
any one thing on earth, which shall be for the interests 
of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, and 



T4 LIFE OP JEFFERSON. 

which will not also be for the interests of the other 
states. 

These articles, reported July 12, '76, were debated 
from day to day and time to time, for two years, and were 
ratified July 9, '78, by ten states, by New Jersey on 
the 26th of November of the same year, and by Del- 
aware on the 23d of February following. Maryland 
alone held off two years more, acceding to them March 
1, '81, and thus closing the obligation. 

Our delegation, says Mr. Jeflferson, had been renew- 
ed for the ensuing year, commencing August 1 1 : but 
the new government was now organized, a meeting of 
the legislature was to be held in October, and I had 
been elected a member by my county. I knew that 
our legislation under the regal government had many 
very vicious points which urgently required reforma- 
tion, and I thought I could be of more use in forward- 
ing that work. I therefore retired from my seat in 
Congress on the 2d of September, resigned it, and 
took my place in the legislature of my state on the 
7th of October. 

In this situation he was indefatigable in his labours 
to improve the imperfect constitution of the state, which 
had been recently and hastily adopted before a draught 
of one, which he had formed on the purest principles 
of republicanism, had reached the Convention, which 
was deliberating at Richmond. This Convention was 
no sooner assembled than they had immediately pro- 
ceeded to the formation of a new plan of government; 
and, with a haste which abandoned all discretion, a 
constitution was adopted in the succeeding montk 
Mr. Jefferson was at this time absent in Philadelphia, 



LXFE OS" JEFFERSON. 75 

as a delegate to Congress ; but he had, for a long time 
previous, devoted unmitigated reflection and research 
to maturing a plan for a new government, and had 
already formed one well adapted to all the wants and 
privileges of democratick freemen. This draught was 
transmitted by him to the Convention; but unfortu- 
nately, the one that they had framed, had received a 
^final vote in its favour on the day Mr. Jefferson's reach- 
ed its destination. The debate had already been ardent 
and protracted, the members were wearied and exhaust- 
ed, and after making a foAV alterations, and adopting 
entire the masterly preamble which Mr. Jefferson had 
prefixed, it was thought expedient, for the present, to 
adhere to the original plan, imperfect as on all hands 
it was acknowledged to be. 

The extremes of right and wrong are said very 
closely to approach each other; and, according to a 
discriminating writer, an incident in the political his- 
tory of Virginia does not invalidate the maxim. In 
June, a constitution had been adopted, breathing in 
every article the most vehement spirit of equal rights, 
and established on the downfall of arbitrary rule. No 
later than the following December, a serious proposi- 
tion was made to establish a Dictator, " invested with 
every power, legislative, executive, and judiciary, civil 
and military, of life and of death, over our persons 
and over our properties." To the wise and good of 
every party, to the patriot and philanthropist, such a 
scheme could not but appear as absurd as its success 
would be tyrannical and awfully dangerous. In Mr. 
Jefferson it found a ready and efficient opponent at the 



76 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

time, and he has devoted to its consideration and cen- 
sure, a few pages of his later works. 

But the chief service which Mr. Jefferson performed 
as a member of the legislature, was as one of a com- 
mission for revising the laws, consisting, besides him- 
self, of Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George 
Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, by whom no less 
than one hundred and twenty-six bills were prepared, 
from which are derived all the most liberal features of 
tlie existing laws of the commonwealth. The share 
of Mr. Jefferson in this great task was prominent and 
laborious. To him Virginia is indebted for the laws 
prohibiting the future importation of slaves ; convert- 
ing estates tail into fee simple ; annulling the rights 
of primogeniture ; establishing schools for general ed- 
ucation ; sanctioning the right of expatriation, and 
confirming the rights of freedom in religious opinion ; 
which were all introduced by him, and were adopted at 
the time they were first proposed, or at a subsequent pe- 
riod ; and in addition to these, he brought forward a 
law proportioning crimes and punishments, w^hich was 
afterwards passed under a different modification. 

His own account of the passage of some of these 
laws, the evils they were intended to remedy, and the 
opposition they overcame, must be gratifying to those 
who are concerned in the fame of their author. We 
have his own description. First, in relation to the law 
declaring tenants in tail to hold in fee simple. '* In 
the earlier times of the colony," he informs us, "when 
lands were to be obtained for little or nothing, some 
provident individuals procured large grants; and de- 
sirous of founding great families for themselves, settled 



Lttte 6V JEFFERSON. 77 

^liem on their descendants in fee tail. The transmis- 
«^ion of this property from generation to generation, in 
-the same name, raised up a distinct set of families, who, 
being privileged by law in the perpetuation of their 
wealth, were thus formed into a Patrician order, dis- 
tinguished by the splendour and luxury of their estab- 
lishments. From this order, too, the King habitually 
selected his counsellors of state ; the hope of v/hicli 
distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests and 
will of the crown. To annul this privilege, and in- 
stead of an aristocra-cy of wealth, of more harm and 
danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for 
the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has 
wisely provided for the direction of the interests of so- 
ciety, and scattered with equal hand through all its con- 
ditions, was deemed essential to a well ordered repub- 
lick. To effect it, no violence was necessary, no de- 
privation of natural right, but rather an enlargement 
of it by a repeal of the law. For this would author- 
ize the present holder to divide the property among 
his children equally, as his affections were divided j 
^nd would place them, by natural genera.tion, on the 
level of their fellow citizens. But this repeal was 
strongly opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who was zealous- 
ly attached to ancient establishments; and who, taken 
all in all, was the ablest man in debate 1 have ever 
met with. He had not, indeed, the poetical fancy 
of Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and 
overwhelming diction ; but he was cool, smooth, and 
persuasive ; his language flowing, chaste, and embel- 
lished; his conceptions quick, acute, and full of re- 
source ; never vanquished ; for if he lost the main bat- 



78 ttVM OF JEFFERSON, 

tie, he returned upon you, and regained so much of it 
as to make it a drawn one, by dexterous manoeuvres, 
skirmishes in detail, and the recovery of small advan- 
tages, Avhich, little singly, were important all together. 
You never knew when you were clear of him, but were 
harassed by his perseverance, until the patience was 
worn down of all who had less of it than himself — 
Add to this, that he was one of the most virtuous and 
benevolent of men, the kindest friend, the most amiable 
and pleasant of companions, which ensured a favoura- 
ble reception to whatever came from him. Finding 
that the general principle of entails could not be main- 
tained, he took his stand on an amendment which he 
proposed, instead of an absolute abolition, to permit the 
tenant in tail to convey in fee simple, if he chose it : 
and he was within a feAV votes of saving so much of 
the old law. But the bill passed finally for entire aboli- 
tion. 

" In that one of the bills for organizing our judiciary 
system which proposed a court of chancery, I had pro- 
vided for atrial by jury of all matters of fact, in that as 
well as in the courts of law; He defeated it by the in- 
troduction of four w^ords only — if either party choose. 
The consequence has been, that as no suitor will say 
to his judge — Sir, I distrust you, give me a jury — 
juries are rarely, I might say perhaps never, seen in 
that court, but when called for by the Chancellor of 
his own accord." 

As it respects the prohibiting the future importation 

of slaves, he continues: " The first establishment in 

Virginia, v/hich became permanent, was made in 1607. 

have found no merition of negroes in the colony un- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 79 

til about 1650. The first brought here as slaves, were 
by a Dutch ship ; after which, the English commenced 
the trade, and continued it until the revolutionary war. 
That suspended, ipso facto, their further importation 
for the present, and the business of the war pressing 
constantly on the legislature, this subject was not acted 
on finally until the year ^7'^, when I brought in a bill 
to prevent their further importation. This passed 
without opposition, and stopped the increase of the 
evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its final 
eradication." 

As it regards the free exercise of opinion in matters 
of religion, he remarks : " The first settlers of this 
colony were Englishmen, loyal subjects to their King 
and church ; and the grant to Sir Walter Raleigh con- 
tained an express proviso, that their laws should not be 
against the true Christian faith, now professed in the 
church of England. As soon as the state of the colo- 
ny admitted, it was divided into parishes, in each of 
which was established a minister of the Anglican 
church, endowed with a fixed salary, in tobacco, a 
glebe house and land, with the other necessary appen- 
dages. To meet these expenses, all the inhabitants of 
the parishes were assessed, whether they were or not 
members of the established church. Towards Qua- 
kers, who came here, they were most cruelly intole- 
rant, driving them from the colony by the severest 
penalties. In process of time, however, other secta- 
risms were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian fam- 
ily; and the established clergy, secure for life in their 
glebes and salaries, adding to these, generally, tfte 
emoluments of a classical school, found employment 



80 LIFE OF JEFFERSOK". 

enough in their farms and school-rooms for the rest Or 
the week, and devoted Sunday only to the edification of 
their flock, by service, and a sermon at their parish- 
ahurch. Their other pastoral functions were little at- 
tended to. Against this inactivity, the zeal and indus- 
try of sectarian preachers had an open and undisputed 
field ; and by the time of the revolution, a majority of 
the inhabitants had become dissenters from the estab- 
lished church, but were still obliged to pay contribu- 
tions to support the pastors of the minority. This un- 
righteous compulsion to maintain teachers of what they> 
'ieemed religious errours, was grievously felt during 
the regal government, and without a hope of reliefs 
But the first republican legislature, which met in '76^- 
was crowded with petitions to abolish this spiritual tyr- 
anny. These brought on the severest contests in. 
which I have ever been engaged. Our great oppo- 
nents were Mr. Pendleton and Robert Carter Nicho- 
las ; honest men, but zealous churchmen. The peti- 
tions were referred to the committee of the whole house 
on the state of the country ; and, after desperate con« 
tests in that committee, almost daily, from the 11 th of 
October to the 5th of December, we prevailed so far 
only as to repeal the laws which rendered criminal the 
maintenance of any religious opinions, the forbearance 
of repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode of 
worship : and further, to exempt dissenters from con- 
tributions to the support of the established church ; and 
to suspend, only until the next session, levies on the 
members of the church for the salaries of their own.v 
incumbents. For although the majority of our cit- 
izens were dissenters, as has been observed, a majority. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 81 

of the legislature were churchmen. Among these, 
however, were some reasonable and liberal men, who 
enabled us, on some points, to obtain feeble majorities. 
But our opponents carried, in the general resolutions of 
the committee of November 19, a declaration, that re- 
ligious assemblies ought to be regulated, and that pro- 
vision ought to be made for continuing the succession 
of the clergy, and superintending their conduct. And 
in the bill now passed, was inserted an express reser- 
vation of the question, Whether a general assessment 
should not be established by law, on every one, to the 
support of the pastor of his choice ; or whether all 
should be left to voluntary contributions: and on this 
question, debated at every session from '76 to '79, (some 
of our dissenting allies, having now secured their par- 
ticular object, going over to the advocates of a general 
assessment,) we could only obtain a suspension from 
session to session until '79, when the question against 
a general assessment was finally carried, and the es- 
tablishment of the Anglican church entirely put down. 
In justice to the two honest but zealous opponents 
whom I have named, 1 must add, that although, from 
their natural temperaments, they were more disposed 
generally to acquiesce in things as they are, than to risk 
innovations ; yet, whenever the publick will had once 
decided, none were more faithful or exact in their obedi- 
ence to it," 

Early in the session of May, '79, Mr. Jefferson pre- 
pared and obtained leave to bring in a bill, declaring 
who should be deemed citizens, asserting the natural 
right of expatriation, and prescribing the mode of ex- 
ercising it. This, when he withdrew from the house 
8* 



S2 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

Oil the 1st of June following, he left in the hands of 
George Mason, and it was passed on the 26th of that 
month. 

Of this gentleman Mr. Jefferson speaks in the high- 
est terms; describing him as " a man of the first order 
of wisdom among those who acted on the theatre of 
the revolution, of expansive mind, profound judgement, 
cogent in argument, learned in the lore of our former 
constitution, and earnest for the republican change, 
on democratick principles. His elocution was neither 
flowing nor smooth ; but his language was strong, his 
manner most impressive, and strengthened by a dash 
of biting cynicism, when provocation made it season- 
able." 

After reading the above, let it be decided Avhether 
Jefferson deserved the epithets bestowed upon him in 
days of party bitterness, as being a visionary enthusi- 
ast, or whether he is more worthy of being considered 
as an ardent friend of rational freedom, and an able 
and enlightened legislator. 

Mr. Jefferson's estimate of the powers of Mr. Mad- 
ison, and his opinion of his character, are also so just, 
so true, and so honourable to both, that we present them 
to the reader. " Mr. Madison," says his friend and 
admirer, " came into the House in 1776, a new mem- 
ber, and young; which circumstances, concurring with 
his extreme modesty, prevented his venturing himself 
in debate before his removal to the Council of State, 
in NoA'-ember, '77. From thence he went to Congress,, 
then consisting of few members. Trained in these 
successive schools, he acquired a habit of self-posses- 
sion, which placed at ready command the rich resour- 



LIFE OF JEFF^RSOJr. SS- 

ces of his luminous and discriminating- mind, and of 
his extensive information, and rendered him the first 
of every assembly afterwards of which he became a 
member. Never Avandering from his subject into vain 
declamation, but pursuing it closely, in language pure, 
classical, and copious, soothing alw^ays the feelings of 
his adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, 
he rose to the eminent station which he held in the great 
National Convention of 1787 ; and in that of Virgin- 
ia, which followed, he sustained the new constitution 
in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logick 
of George Mason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. 
Henry. With these consummate powers, was united 
a pure and spotless virtue, which no calumny has ever 
attempted to sully. Of the powers and polish of his 
pen, and of the wisdom of his administration in the 
highest office of the nation, I need say nothing. They 
have spoken, and will for ever speak for themselves." 
Certainly, such eulogy, and from such a pen, is suffi- 
cient recompense for a life well spent. 

While on this subject, and as the opinion of Mr. Jef- 
ferson is of so great weight as to guide the faith of 
thousands, we subjoin his account af three others, not 
only prominent men in Congress, but the most zealous 
and active supporters of the rights of their country, 
both before and during the revolutionary struggle. — ■ 
His sentiments are the result of personal and frequent 
observation, and are delivered with a candour which 
could *' bear a rival near the throne." 

"Dr. Franklin had many political enemies, as 
every character must, which, with decision enough to 
have opinions, has energy and talent to give them ef- 



84 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

feet on the feelings of those of the adversary opinion. 
These enmities were chiefly in Pennsylvania and Mas- 
sachusetts. In the former, they were merely of the 
proprietary party; in the latter, they did not commence 
till the revolution, and then sprung chiefly from per- 
sonal animosities, which spreading by little and little, 
became, at length, of some extent. As to the charge 
of subservience to France, besides the evidence of his 
friendly colleagues, two years of my own service with 
him at Paris, daily visits, and the most friendly and 
confidential communications, convince me it had not 
a shadow of foundation. He possessed the confidence 
of that government in the highest degree, insojnuch, 
that it may truly be said, that they were more under 
his influence, than he under theirs. The fact is, that 
his temper v/as so amiable and conciliatory, his con- 
duct so rational, never urging impossibilities or even 
things unreasonably inconvenient to them ; in short, 
so moderate and attentive to their difficulties as well 
as our own, that what his enemies call subserviency, 
I saw. was only that reasonable disposition, which, sen- 
sible that advantages are not all to be on one side, 
yielding what is just and reasonable, is the more cer- 
tain of obtaining liberality and .justice. Mutual confi- 
dence produces, of course, mutual influence ; and this 
was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the 
government of France. 

" Of Samuel Adams, I can say that he was truly a 
great man : wise in council, fertile in resources, im- 
moveable in his purposes, and had, I think, a greater 
share than any other member in advising and direct- 
ing our measures in the northern war. As a speaker, 



liFE OF JEFlFERSO^; 83i 

lie could not be compared with his living colleague and 
namesake, whose deep conceptions, nervous style, and 
undaunted firmness, made him truly our bulwark in 
debate. But Mr. Samuel Adams, although not of, 
fluent elocution, was so rigorously logical, so clear in 
his views,' abundant in good sense, and master always 
of his subject, that he commanded the most profound 
attention whenever he rose in an assembly, by which 
the froth of declamation was heard with the most sove- 
reign contempt. 

"You know the opinion I formerly entertained of my 
friend, Mr. John Adams. I afterwards saw proofs 
which jconvicted him of a degree of vanity and of a 
blindness to it of which no germe then appeared. He 
is vain, irritable, and a bad calculator of the force and 
probable effect of the motives which govern men. — 
This is all the ill which can possibly be said of him. 
He is as disinterested as the Being who made him ; he 
is profound in his views, and accurate in his judgement, 
except where knowledge of the world is necessary to 
form a judgement. He is so amiable, that I pronounce 
you will love him if ever you become acquainted with 
him. He would be, as he was, a great man in Con- 
gress." 

But it was not to the revision of the laws of his 
state, or other laborious publick duties, that Mr. Jef- 
ferson entirely devoted himself He at this time, in a 
noble manner, displayed the sternness of his justice, the 
purity of his heart, and the softness of his feelings, by 
deprecating all cruelty to a fallen foe, and by extend- 
ing a hand of charity to the foiled ravagers of his coun^ 
try- His sym^pathies were excited by proposed wrong 



86 LIFE OP JEFFBRSON. 

to the unfortunate, and he gave his indignant, power- 
ful, and successful pen to their assistance. 

Congress, it will be recollected, had resolved to re- 
tain in America the troops who had surrendered at Sar- 
atoga, until the terms of capitulation, which had been 
entered into by the British general, were duly ratified 
by, and obtained from, his government. Until this was 
done and received, it-^vas thought expedient to remove 
them into the interiour of the country; and the neigh- 
bourhood of Charlottesville, in Virginia, was selected 
as the place of their residence. 

" There they arrived early in the year. 1779. The 
winter was uncommonly severe; the barracks unfinish- 
ed for want of labourers: no sufficient stores of bread 
laid in; and the roads rendered impassable by the in- 
clemency of the weather and the number of wagons 
which hid lately traversed them." Mr. Jefierson, aid- 
ed by Mr. Hawkins, the commissary general, and the 
benevolent disposition of his fellow citizens, adopted 
every plan to alleviate the distresses of the troops, and 
to soften, as much as possible, the hardships of captiv- 
ity. Their efibrts were attended with success. The 
officers who were able to command money rented 
houses and small farms in the neighbourhood, while the 
soldiers enlarged the barracks and improved their ac- 
commodations, so as in a short time to form a little 
community, flourishing and happy. These arrange- 
ments had scarcely been completed, when, in conse- 
quence of a power lodged in them by Congress, the 
Governour and Council of Virginia determined to re- 
move the prisoners to another state, or to another part 
of the same state. This intention was heard by the 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 87 

captives with distress. Mr. Jefferson immediately ad- 
dressed a letter to Governour Henry, in which he 
stated the impolicy, impropriety, and cruelty of such a 
measure. 

But we will give this admirable letter to the reader. 
It speaks so well for the writer, is so illustrative of the 
m:ore amiable traits of his character, is so correct in 
sentiment and glowing in language, and was finally 
so powerful in effect, that it would be an inexcusable 
omission in the memoirs of his life. Its incidents will 
repay perusal, while no tedium can affect the patience. 

TO HIS EXCELLENCY PATRICK HENRY. 

Albemarle, March 27, 1779- 
Sir, 

A report prevailing here, that in consequence of 
some powers from Congress, the Governour and Coun- 
cil have it in contemplation to remove the Convention 
troops, either wholly or in part, from their present sit- 
uation, I take the liberty of troubling you with some 
observations on that subject. The reputation and in- 
terest of our country, in general, may be affected by 
such a measure ; it would, therefore, hardly be deemed 
an indecent liberty in the most private citizen, to offer 
his thoughts to the consideration of the Executive. — 
The locality of my situation, particularly in the neigh- 
bourhood of the present barracks, and the publick 
relation in which I stand to the people among whom 
they are situated, together with a confidence, which a 
personal knowledge of the members of the Executive 
gives me, that they will be glad of information from 
any quarter, on a subject interesting to the publick, 



88 "LITE OF JEFFERSON. 

induce me to hope that they will acquit me of impro>' 
priety in 4;he present representation. 

By an article in the Convention of Saratoga, it is 
stipulated, on the part of the United States, that the 
officers shall not be separated from their men. I sup- 
pose the term qfficei's, includes general as well as re- 
gimental officers. As there are general officers who 
command all the troops, no part of them can be sepa- 
rated from these officers without a violation of the 
article : they cannot, of course, be separated from one 
another, unless the same general officer could be in 
different places at the same time. It is true, the article 
adds the words, "as far as circumstances w411 admit." 
This was a necessary qualification; because, in no 
place in America, I suppose, could there have been 
found quarters for both officers and men together; 
those for the officers to be according to their rank. — 
So far, then, as the circumstances of the place where 
they should be quartered, should render a separation 
necessary, in order to procure quarters for the officers, 
according to their rank, the article admits that separa- 
tion. And these are the circumstances which must 
have been under the contemplation of the parties ; both 
of whom, and all the world beside, (who are ultimate 
judges in the case,) would still understand that they 
were to be as near in the environs of the camp as con- 
venient quarters could be procured ; and not that the 
qualification of the article destroyed the article itself, 
and laid it wholly at our discretion. Congress, indeed, 
have admitted of this separation; but are they so far 
lords of right and wrong as that our consciences may 
be quiet with their dispensation? Or is the case 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 89 

amended by saying they leave it optional in the Gov- 
ernour and Council to separate the troops or not ? At 
the same time that it exculpates not them, it is draw- 
ing the Governour and Council into a participation in 
the breach of faith. If, indeed, it is only proposed, that 
a separation of the troops shall be referred to the con- 
s^ent of their officers ; that is a very different matter. 
Having carefully avoided conversation with them on 
publick subjects, I cannot say, of my own knowledge, 
how they would relish such a proposition. I have 
heard from others, that they will choose to undergo any 
thing together, rather than to be separated, and that 
they will remonstrate against it in the strongest terms. 
The Executive, therefore, if voluntary agents in this 
measure, must be drawn into a paper war with them, 
the more disagreeable, as it seems that faith and reason 
will be on the other side. As an American, I cannot 
help feeling a thorough mortification, that our Con- 
gress should have permitted an infraction of our pub- 
lick honour ; as a citizen of Virginia, I cannot help 
h-oping and confiding, that our supreme Executive, 
whose acts will be considered as the acts of the com- 
monwealth, estimate that honour too highly to make 
its infraction their own act. I may be permitted to 
hope, then, that if any removal takes place, it will be 
a general one : and as it is said to be left to the Gov- 
ernour and Council to determine on this, I am satisfi- 
ed that, suppressing every other consideration, and 
weighing the matter dispassionately, they will deter- 
mine upon this sole question. Is it for the benefit of 
those for whom they act, that the Convention troops 
should be removed from among them? Under the 
9 



90 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

head of interest, these circumstances, viz. the expense 
of building barracks, said to have been i£25,000, and of 
removing the troops backwards and forwards, amount- 
ing to I know not how much, are not to be pretermit- - 
ted, merely because they are continental expenses : for 
we are a part of the continent ; we must pay a shilling 
of every dollar wasted. But the sums of money 
which, by these troops or on their account, are brought 
into and expended in this state, are a great and local 
advantage. This can require no proof If, at the 
conclusion of the war, for instance, our share of the 
continental debt should be twenty millions of dollars, 
or say that we are called on to furnish an annual quo- 
ta of two millions four hundred thousand dollars, to 
Congress, to be raised by tax, it is obvious that we 
should raise these given sums with greater or less ease, 
in proportion to the greater or less quantity of money 
found in circulation among us. I expect that our cir* 
culating money is, by the presence of these troops, at 
the rate of $30,000 a week at the least. I have heard, 
indeed, that an objection arises to their being kept 
within this state, from the information of the commis- 
sary that they cannot be subsisted here. In attending 
to the information of that officer, it should be borne in 
mind that the county of King William and its vicini- 
ties are one thing, the territory of Virginia another. — 
If the troops could be fed upon long letters, I believe 
the gentleman at the head of that department in this 
country would be the best commissary upon earth. 
But till I see him determined to act, not to write — to 
sacrifice his domestick ease to the duties of his ap- 
pointment, and apply to the resources of this country, 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 91 

wheresoever they are to be had, 1 must entertain a 
different opinion of him. I am mistaken if, for the 
animal subsistence of the troops hitherto, we are not 
principally indebted to the genius and exertions of 
Hawkins, during the very short time he lived after his 
appointment to that department by your board. His 
eye immediately pervaded the whole state ; it was re- 
duced at once to a regular machine, to a system, and 
the whole put into movement and animation by. the ^a^ 
of a comprehensive mind. If the commonwealth of 
Virginia cannot furnish these troops with bread, I 
would ask of the commissariat, which of the thirteen 
is now become the grain colony? If we are in dan- 
ger of famine from the addition of four thousand 
mouths, what is become of that surplus of bread, the 
exportation of which used to feed the West Indies and 
eastern states, and fill the colony with hard money? 
When I urge the sufficiency of this state, however, to 
subsist these troops, I beg to be understood as having 
in contemplation the quantity of provisions necessary for 
their real use, and not as calculating what is to be lost ' 
by the wanton waste, mismanagement and carelessness 
of those employed about it. If magazines of beef and 
pork are suffered to rot by slovenly butchering, or for 
want of timely provision and sale ; if quantities of 
flour are exposed by the commissaries intrusted with 
the keeping it, to pillage and destruction ] and if, when 
laid up in the continental stores, it is still to be em- 
bezzled and sold, the land of Egypt itself would be 
insufficient for their supply, and their removal would 
be necessary, not to a more plentiful country, but to 
more able and honest commissaries. Perhaps, the 



92 LIFE OF JEFFERSOjr. 

magnitude of this question, and its relation to the 
whole state, may render it worth while to await the 
opinion of the National Council, which is now to meet 
within a few weeks. There is no danger of distress 
in the mean time, as the commissaries affirm they 
have a great sufficiency of* provisions for some time to 
come. Should the measure of removing them into 
another state be adopted and carried into execution be- 
fore the meeting of the Assembly, no disapprobation 
of theirs will bring them back, because they will then be 
in the power of others, who will hardly give them up. 
Want of information as to what may be the precise 
measure proposed by the Governour and Council, 
obliges me to shift my ground, and take up the subject 
in every possible form. Perhaps they have not thought 
to remove the troops out of this stato altogether, but to 
some other part of it. Here, the objections arising 
from the expenses of removal, and of building new 
barracks, recur. As to animal food, it may be driven 
to one part of the country as easily as to another : that 
circumstance, therefore, may be thrown out of- ques- 
tion. As to bread, I suppose they will require about 
forty or forty-five thousand bushels of grain a year. The 
place to which it is to be brought to them, is about the 
centre of the state. Besides that the country round 
about is fertile, all the grain made in the counties ad- 
jacent to any kind of navigation, may be brought by 
water to within twelve miles of the spot. For these 
twelve miles, wagons must be employed ; I suppose 
half a dozen will be a plenty. Perhaps this part of 
the expense might have been saved, had the barracks 
bee^ built on the water ; but it is not sufficient to justi- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 93 

fy theii? being abandoned now they are built. Wagon- 
age, indeed, seems to the commissariat an article not 
worth economizing. The most wanton and studied 
circuity of transportation has been practised ; to men- 
tion only one act, they have bought quantities of flour 
for these troops in Cumberland, have ordered it to be 
' wagoned down to Manchester, and wagoned thence up 
to the barracJcs. This fact happened to fall within my 
own knowledge. I doubt not there are many more 
such, in order either to produce their total removal, or 
to run up the expenses of the present situation, and 
satisfy Congress that the nearer they are brought to 
the commissary's own bed, the cheaper they will be 
subsisted. The grain made in the western counties 
may be brought partly in wagons as conveniently to 
this as to any other place ; perhaps more so, on account 
of its vicinity to one of the best passes through the 
Blue Ridge : and partly by water, as it is near to 
James river, to the navigation of which, ten counties 
are adjacent above the falls. When 1 said that the 
grain might be brought hither from all the counties of 
the state adjacent to navigation, I did not mean to say 
it would be proper to bring it from all. On the contra- 
ry, I think the commissary should be instructed, after 
the next harvest, not to send one bushel of grain to the 
barracks from below the falls of the river, or from the 
northern counties. The counties on tide water are 
accessible to the calls for our own army. Their supplies 
ought therefore to be husbanded for ihetn. The coun- 
ties in the northwestern parts of the state are not only 
within reach for our own grand army, but peculiarly 

necessary for the support of Mackintosh's army ; or 
9* 



94 LIFE OF J^EFFERSON, 

for the support of any other northwestern expedition, 
which the uncertain conduct of the Indians should 
render necessary ; insomuch that if the supplies of that 
quarter should be misapplied to any other purpose, it 
would destroy in embryo every exertion, either for 
particular or general safety there. The counties above 
tide water, in the middle, southern and western parts of 
the country, are not accessible to calls for either of those 
purposes, but at such an expense of transportation as 
the article would not bear. Here, then, is a great field, 
whose supplies of bread cannot be carried to our army, 
or rather, which will raise no supplies of bread, because 
there is nobody to eat them. Was it ijot, then, wise in 
Congress to remove to that field four thousand idle 
mouths, who must otherwise have interfered with the 
pasture of our own troops ? And, if they are removed 
to any other part of the country, will it not defeat this 
wise purpose ? The mills on the Avaters' of James 
river, above the falls, open to canoe navigation, are 
very many. Some of them are of great note, as man- 
ufacturers. The barracks are surrounded by mills. 
There are five or six round about Charlottesville. — ' 
Any two or three of the whole might, in the course of 
the winter, manufacture flour sufficient for the year. 
To say the worst, then, of this situation, it is but twelve 
miles wrong. The safe custody of these troops is 
another circumstance worthy consideration. Equally 
removed from the access of an eastern or western en- 
emy, central to the whole state, so that, should they 
attempt an irruption in any direction, they must pass 
through a great extent of hostile country: in a neigh- 
)^ourhood thickly inhabited by a robust and hardy peo" 



ilFE OF JEFFERSON, 95 

pie, Zealous in the American cause, acquainted with 
tJie use of arms, and the defiles and passes by which 
they must issue : it would seem that, in this point of 
view, no place could have been better chosen,. 

Their health is also of importance. I would not 
^endeavour to show that their lives are valuable to us^ 
because it would suppose a possibility, that humanity 
was kicked out of doors in America, and interest only 
attended to. The barracks occupy the top and brow 
of a very high hill ; (you have been untruly told they 
were in a bottom ;) they are free from fog, have four 
springs which seem to be plentiful, one within twenty 
yards of the picket, two within fifty yards, and another 
within two hundred and fifty, and they propose to sink 
wells within the picket. Of four thousand people, it 
should be expected, according to the ordinary calcu- 
lations, that one should die every day : yet in the space 
of near three months, there have been but four deaths 
among them ; two infants under three weeks old, and 
two others by apoplexy. The officers tell me, the 
troops were never before so healthy since they were 
embodied. 

But is an enemy so execrable, that, though in captiv- 
ity, his wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and 
even crossed? I think not. It is for the benefit of 
mankind to mitigate the horrours of war as much as 
possible. The practice, therefore, of modern nations, of 
treating captive enemies with politeness and generos- 
ity, is not only delightful in contemplation,, but really 
interesting to all the world, friends, foes, and neutrals- 
Let us apply this : the officers, after considerable hard- 
ships, have all procured quarters comfortable and sal- 



96 LIFE OF JEFFERSOK. 

isfactory to them. In order to do this, they were obli- 
ged, in many instances, to hire houses for a year cer- 
tain, and at such exorbitant rents, as were sufficient 
to tempt independent owners to go out of them, and 
shift as they could. These houses, in most cases, 
were much out of repair. They have repaired them 
at a considerable expense. One of the general officers 
has taken a place for two years, advanced the rent for 
the whole time, and been obliged, moreover, to erect 
additional buildings for the accommodation of part of 
his family, for which there was not room in the house 
rented. Independent of the brick work, for the car- 
pentry of these additional buildings, I know he is to 
pay fifteen hundred dollars. The same gentleman, to 
my knowledge, has paid to one person, three thousand 
six hundred and seventy dollars, for different articles to 
fix himself commodiously. They have generally laid 
in their stocks of grain and other provisions, for it is 
well known that officers do not live on their rations. 
They have purchased cows, sheep, &c., set in to farm- 
ing, prepared their gardens, and have a prospect of 
comfort and quiet before them. To turn to the sol- 
diers: the environs of the barracks are delightful, the 
ground cleared, laid off in hundreds of gardens, each 
enclosed in its separate paling : these well prepared, 
and exhibiting a fine appearance. General Hiedesel, 
alone, laid out upwards oftvv^ohundred.pounds in garden 
seeds, for the • German troops only. Judge what an 
extent of ground these seeds would cover. There is 
little doubt that their own gardens will furnish them a 
great abundance of vegetables through the year. — 
Their poultry, pigeons, and other preparations of that 



LIFE or JEFFERSOX. &7 

kind, present to the mind tlie idea of a company of 
formers, rather than a camp of soldiers. In addition 
to the barracks buih for them by the publick, and now 
veiy comfortable, they have built great numbers for 
themselves, in such messes as fancied each other: and 
the whole corps, both officers and men, seem now hap- 
py and satisfied with their situation. Having thus 
found the art of rendering captivity itself comfortable, 
and carried it into execution, at their own great ex^ 
pense and labour, their spirit sustained by the prospect 
of gratifications rising before their eyes, does not eve- 
ry sentiment of humanity revolt against the proposi- 
tion of stripping them of all this, and removing them 
into new situations, where, from the advanced season of 
the year, no preparations can be made for carrying 
themselves comfortably through the heats of summer ; 
and when it is known that the necessary advances for 
the conveniences already provided, have exhausted 
their funds and left them unable to make the like exer- 
tions anew? Again; review this matter as it may re- 
gard appearances. A body of troops, after staying a 
twelvemonth at Boston, are ordered to take a march of 
seven hundred miles to Virginia, where, it is said, they 
may be plentifully subsisted. As soon as they are 
there, they are ordered on some other march, because, 
in Virginia, it is said, they cannot be subsisted. Indif- 
ferent nations will charge this either to ignorance or 
to whim and caprice; the parties interested, to cruelty, 
.They now view the proposition in that light, and it is 
said, there is a general and firm persuasion among 
them, that they were marched from Boston with no 
Other purpose than to harass and destroy them with 



98 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

eternal marches. Perseverance in object, though not 
by the most direct way, is often more laudable than 
perpetual chang-es, as often as the object shifts light. 
A character of steadiness in our councils is worth 
more than the subsistence of four thousand people. 

There could not have been a more unlucky concur- 
rence of circumstances than when these troops first 
came. The barracks were unfinished for want of la- 
bourers, the spell of weather the worst ever known 
within the memory of man, no stores of bread laid 
in, the roads, by the weather and number of wagons, 
soon rendered impassable : not only the troops them- 
selves were greatly disappointed, but the people in the 
neighbourhood were alarmed at the consequences 
which a total failure of provisions might produce. In 
this worst state of things, their situation was seen by 
many and disseminated through the countr}'-, so as to 
occasion a general dissatisfaction, which even seized 
the minds of reasonable men, v/ho, if not infected with 
the contagion, must have foreseen that the prospect 
must brighten, and that great advantages to the people 
must necessarily arise. It has, accordingly, so hap- 
pened. The planters, being more generally sellers 
than buyers, have felt the benefit of their presence in 
the most vital part about them, their purses, and are 
now sensible of its source. I have too good an opin- 
ion of their love of order, to believe that a removal of 
these troops would produce any irregular proofs of 
their disapprobation, but I am well assured it would be 
extremely odious to them. 

To conclude. The separation of these troops would 
be a breach of publick faith : therefore I suppose it im- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON* 99 

possible. If they are removed to another state, it is 
the fault of the commissaries ; if they are removed to 
any other part of the state, it is the fault of the com- 
missaries ; and in both cases, the publick interest and 
publick security suffer, the comfortable and plentiful 
subsistence of our own army is lessened, the health of 
the troops neglected, their wishes crossed, and their 
comforts torn from them, the character of whim and 
caprice, or, what is worse, of cruelty, fixed on us as a 
nation, and, to crown the whole, our own people dis- 
gusted with such a proceeding. 

I have thus taken the liberty of representing to you 
the facts and the reasons whicli seem to militate against 
the separation or removal of these troops. I am sen- 
sible, however, that the same subject may appear to 
different persons in very different lights. What I 
have urged as reasons, may, to sounder minds, be ap- 
parent fallacies. I hope they will appear, at least, so 
plausible, as to excuse th<e interposition of 
your Excellency's 

most obedient 

and most humble servant, 

Th: Jefferson. 

It needs no assu|*ance from us to our readers that this 
appeal was entirCj'ly successful; nor was it ever for^ 
gotten by those /unfortunate captives from vv^hom it 
averted tyranny,, and for whose security and comfort 
it was penned. They duly appreciated his kindness 
and generosity, and their attachment and gratitude 
were lasting;,^ and in his subsequent travels through 
Europe, wher-.i chance again threw him in their socie- 



100 LitE OF JEFFERSOPf. 

t^, they loaded him with civility and kindness, and 
spoke to their countrymen in warm terms of the hos- 
pitality of Virginia. When about to leave Charlottes- 
ville, the principal officers wrote to him, to renew their 
thanks, and to bid him adieu; the answer of Mr. Jef- 
ferson to one of them has been preserved. " The 
little attentions," he says, "you are pleased to magnify 
so much, never deserved a mention or a thought. Op- 
posed as Ave happen to be in our sentiments of duty 
and honour, and anxious for contrary events, I shall, 
nevertheless, sincerely rejoice in every circumstance 
of happiness and safety which may attend you per- 
sonally."' 

To another of them he ti.uis wrote : 

" The very small amusements which it has been in 
my power to furnish, in order to lighten your heavy 
hours, by no means merited the acknowledgments you 
make. Their impression musst be ascribed to your 
extreme sensibility, rather thai.i to their own weight. 
When the course of events shalV. have removed you to 
distant scenes of action, where Ivaurels not moistened 
with the blood of my country, kiay be gathered, I 
shall urge my sincere prayers for ^''our obtaining eve- 
ry honour and preferment which V may gladden the 
heart of a soldier. On the other hand,^^ should your fond- 
ness for philosophy resume its meritedi ascendency, is it 
impossible to hope that this unexplor6;'d country may 
tempt your residence, by holding out n?*iaterials where- 
with to build a fame, founded on the I lappiness, and 
not on the calamities of human nature ? V Be this as it 
may, a philosopher or a soldier, I wish j 'ou personal- 
ly many felicities." ^ 



S.1FE or JEFFERSON. J (M 



CHAPTER III. 

On the first of June, 1779, Mr. Jefferson was ap- 
'pointed Governour of the commonwealth of Virginia, 
and retired from the legislature. Being elected also 
one of the Visiters of William and Mary College, a 
self-electing body, he effected during his residence in 
Williamsburgh that year, a change in the organization 
of that institution, by abolishing the grammar school, 
and the two professorships of Divinity and Oriental 
Languages, and substituting a professorship of Law 
and Police ; one of Anatomy, Medicine, and Chymis- 
try ; and one of Modern Languages ; and the charter 
being confined to six professorships, the Visiters added 
the Law of Nature and Nations and the Fine Arts to 
the duties of the Moral professor, and Natural History 
to those of the professor of Mathematicks and Natural 
Philosophy. 

" Being now," says he, "as it were identified with 
the commonweahh itself, to write my own history, 
during the two years of my administration, would be 
to write the publick history of that portion of the revo- 
lution within this state." We must, therefore, rely 
upon cotemporary history, and his own letters, for a 
relation of those events in which he was more person- 
ally concerned, and which occurred during his admin- 
istration of the government. 
10 



102 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

Mr. Jefferson was the second republican 'OovernoiiY 
of Virginia, he having been chosen to succeed the 
celebrated Patrick Henry, whose term of service had 
expired. The time of his accession was one at which 
its duties were no less trying 'than arduous and diffi- 
cult; it was at that period of the war when the Brit- 
ish government, exasperated by the long protraction of 
hostilities, and goaded by their continual defeats, in- 
creased the usual horrours of warfare, by the persecu- 
tion of the wretched prisoners who fell into their 
hands. The Governour of Virginia, among others, 
promptly expressed his determination to adopt, as the 
only resource against a system of warfare so barba- 
rous and unheard of, a retaliation on the British pris- 
oners in his power. 

Among the persons most conspicuous in these infa- 
mous transactions, Avas Henry Hamilton, Esq. who 
acted as Lieutenant Governour of the settlement at 
and about Detroit, and commandant of the British 
garrison there, under Sir Guy Carleton as Govern- 
our in chief He had not only induced and instigated 
the Indians to their butcheries on the frontiers, but 
had treated all prisoners in his power with unprece- 
dented severity. This gentleman, on the fifth of De- 
cember, 1778, had possessed himself of post St. Vin- 
cenne, with the intention of attacking Kaskaskia in 
Illinois, and which there was no doubt of his carrying. 
There he expected to be joined by two hundred Indians 
from Michilimackinack, and five hundred Cherokees, 
Chickasaws, and other nations.] With this body he 
was to penetrate up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, sweeping 
Kentucky on his way, having light brass cannon for 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 103 

the purpose, and expecting to be joined on the march 
by numerous bodies of Indians. With this force, he 
made no doubt that he could force all West Augusta. 
" Colonel Clarke, a brave and able officer of Virginia, 
was then in Kaskaskia with a small body of men, and 
^ made every preparation for resisting the expected at- 
tack. ■ However, there was no hope of his holding out, 
and his destruction seemed inevitable. In the gloom 
of this despair, a Spanish merchant, who had been at 
St. Vincenne, arrived, and gave the following intelli- 
gence: That Mr. Hamilton had weakened himself by 
sending his Indians against the frontiers, and to block 
up the Ohio ; that he had not more than eighty men 
in garrison, three pieces of cannon, and some swivels 
mounted : and that he intended to attack Kaskaskia 
as soon as the winter opened, and made no doubt of 
clearing the western waters by the fall. On this in- 
formation. Colonel Clarke, with a promptitude that did 
him honour, and which his situation and circumstances 
justified, resolved upon becoming the assailant, and to 
attack him before he could collect his Indians again. 
The resolution was as desperate as his, situation, but 
there was no other probability of securing the coun- 
try. He accordingly despatched a small galley which 
he had fitted up, mounting two four-pounders and four 
swivels, with a company of men and necessary stores 
on board, with orders to force her v/ay, if possible, 
and station herself a few miles below the enemy, suf- 
fering nothing to pass her, and wait for farther orders. 
In the mean time, he himself marched across the 
country with one hundred and thirty men, being all he 
could raise, and leaving Kaskaskia garrisoned by the 



104 tITE OF JEFFERSON'. 

militia. He marched on the 7th of February, aij& 
was sixteen days on the route ; while the inclemency 
of the season, high waters, &c. seemed to threaten 
the loss of the expedition. When within three leagues 
of the enemy, in a direct line, it took them five days to 
cross the drowned lands of the Wabash river, having 
to wade often upwards of two leagues to their breast' in 
water. Had not the weather been warm, they must 
have perished. But on the evening of the 23d, they 
got on dry land, in sight of the enemy ; and at seven 
o'clock made an attack, as totally unforeseen by them 
as it must have been unexpected. The town immedi- 
ately surrendered with joy, and assisted in the siege. 
There was a continual fire on both sides for eighteen 
hours. The moon setting about one o'clock, the •Col- 
onel had an entrenchment thrown up within rifle shot 
of their strongest battery, and poured such incessant 
showers of well-directed balls into their ports, that they 
silenced two pieces of cannon in fifteen minutes, with- 
out getting a man hurt. 

" Governour Hamilton and Colonel Clarke had, on 
the following day, several conferences, but did not 
agree until the evening, when the former agreed to 
surrender the garrison (seventy-njne in number) pris- 
oners of war, with considerable stores. Clarke had 
only one man wounded, "for," says the Colonel with 
no little naivette, " not being able to lose many, I made 
them secure themselves well." 

" On the reception of these prisoners, the Governour 
of Virginia in Council determined, that Hamilton and 
two of his coadjutors should be ironed and confined in 
the dungeon of the publick jail, as, in some measure^A 



tIFE 01? JEFFERSON. 105 

retaliation for the treatment American prisoners had 
received and were daily receiving at the hands of the 
enemy. 

An enumeration of the offences of this Hamilton, as 
exhibited by the Council, will give some faint idea of 
^the manner in which the war was then carried on, and 
will be an ample justification of Mr. Jefferson for the 
•apparent harshness of his proceedings. 

" In Council, June 18th, 1779. 

" The board proceeded to the consideration of the let- 
ters of Colonel Clarke, and other papers relating to 
Henry Hamilton, Esq. who has acted for some years 
past as Lieutenant Governour of the settlement at and 
about Detroit, and commandant of the British garri- 
son there, under Sir Guy Carleton as Governour in 
chief; Philip Dejean, justice of the peace for Detroit, 
and William Lamothe, captain of volunteers, prison- 
ers of war, taken in the county of Illinois. 

" They find that Governour Hamilton has executed.' 
the task of inciting the Indians to perpetrate their ac- 
customed cruelties on the citizens of the United States, 
without distinction of age, sex, or condition, with an 
eagerness and avidity which evince, that the general 
nature of his charge harmonized with his particular 
disposition. They should have been satisfied, from 
the other testimony adduced, that these enormities 
were committed by savages acting under his commis- 
sion ; but the number of proclamations v/hicb, at diflfer- 
ent times, were left in houses, the inhabitants of which 
were killed or carried away by the Indians, one of 
which proclamations is in possession of the board, un- 
10* 



l06 LIFE OF JEFFERSOrr. 

der the hand and seal of Governour Hamikon, puts 
this fact beyond a doubt. At the time of his captivity, 
it appears, he had sent considerable bodies of Indians 
ag-ainst the frontier settlements of these states, and had 
actually appointed a great council of Indians, to meet 
him at Tennessee, to concert the operations of this 
present campaign. They find that his treatment of 
our citizens and soldiers, taken and carried within the 
limits of his command, has been cruel and inhuman ; 
that in the case of John Dodge, a citizen of these states, 
which has been particularly stated to this board, he 
loaded him with irons, threw him into a dungeon, with- 
out bedding, without straw, without fire, in the dead of 
winter, and severe clifiQate of Detroit: that in that- 
state, he wasted him with incessant expectations of 
death; that when the rigours of his situation had 
brought him so low that death seemed likely to with- 
draw him from their power, he was taken out and 
somewhat attended to, until a little mended, and before 
he had recovered ability to walk, was again returned 
to his dungeon, in which a hole was cut seven inches 
square only for the admission of air, and the same load 
of irons again put on him ; that appearing, a second 
time, in imminent danger of being lost to them, he was 
again taken from his dungeon, in which he. liad lain 
from January till June, with the intermission of a few 
weeks only, before mentioned. That Governour Ham- 
ilton gave standing rewards for scalps, but offered none 
for prisoners, which induced the Indians, after making 
their captives carry their baggage into the neighbour- 
hood of the fort, there to put them, to death, and carry 
in their scalps to the Governour, who welcGmed their 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. lO'T 

return and success by a discharge of cannon. That 
when a prisoner, brought alive, and destined to death 
by the Indians, the fire already kindled, and himself 
bound to the stake, was dexterously withdrawn, and 
secreted from them by the humanity of a fellow pris- 
»oner, a large reward was offered for the recovery of 
the victim, which having tempted a servant to betray 
his concealment, the present prisoner Dejean, being 
sent with a party of soldiers, surrounded the house, 
took and threw into jail the unhappy victim and his de- 
liverer, where the former soon expired, under the per- 
petual assurances of Dejean that he was to be again 
restored into the hands of the savages: and the latter, 
when enlarged, was bitterly reprimanded by Governour 
Hamilton. 

" It appears to them that the prisoner Dejean was, on 
all occasions, the willing and cordial instrument of 
Governour Hamilton, acting both as judge and keeper 
of the jails, and instigating and urging him, by mali- 
cious insinuations and untruths, to increase rather 
than to relax his severities, heightening the cruelty of 
his orders by his manner of executing them, offering 
at one time a reward to one man to be hangman for 
another, threatening his life on refusal, and taking from 
his prisoners their little property their opportunities 
enabled them to acquire. 

" It appears that the prisoner Lamothe was a captain 
of the volunteer scalping parties of Indians and whites, 
who went, from time to time, under general orders to 
spare neither men, women, nor children. From this 
detail of circumstances, which arose in a few cases 
only, coming accidentally to the knowledge of the 



108 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

board, they think themselves authorized, by fair de- 
duction, to presume what would be the horrid history 
of the sufferings of the many who have expired under 
their miseries, (which therefore will remain for ever 
untold,) or who have escaped from them, and are yet 
too remote and too much dispersed to bring together 
their well-founded accusations against the prisoners. 

" They have seen that the conduct of the British offi- 
cers, civil and military, has, in the whole course of this 
war, been savage, and unprecedented among civilized 
nations : that our officers taken by them have been 
confined in crowded 'jails, loathsome dungeons, and 
prison-ships, loaded with irons, supplied often with no 
food, generally with too little for the sustenance of 
nature, and that little sometimes unsound and unwhole- 
some, whereby such numbers have perished, that cap- 
tivity and death have with them been almost synony- 
mous ; that they have been transported beyond seas, 
where their fate is out of the reach of our inquiry, have 
been compelled to take up arms against their country, 
and by a refinement in cruelty, to become murderers, 
of their own brethren. 

•' Their prisoners with us have, on the other hand, 
been treated with humanity and moderation ; they have 
been fed, on all occasions, with wholesome and plenti- 
ful food, suffered to go at large within extensive tracts 
of country, treated with liberal hospitality, permitted to 
live in the families of our citizens, to labour for them- 
selves, to acquire and enjoy profits, and, finally, to par- 
ticipate of the principal benefits of society, privileged 
from all burdens. 

" Reviewing this contrast, which cannot be denied by 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 1395. 

our enemies themselves in a single point, and whieh. 
has now been kept up during four years of unremitting 
war, a term long enough to produce well founded de- 
spair that our moderation may ever lead them to the 
practice of humanity : called on by that justice we owe 
to those who are fighting the battles of our country, to 
deal out, at length, miseries to their enemies, measure 
for measure, and to distress the feelings of mankind by 
exhibiting to them spectacles of severe retaliation, 
where we had long and vainly endeavoured to intro- 
duce an emulation in kindness ; happily possessed, by 
the fortune of war, of some of those very individuals 
who, having distinguished themselves personally in 
this line of cruel conduct, are fit subjects to begin on, 
With the work of retaliation ; this board has resolved 
to advise the Governour, that the said Henry Hamil- 
ton, Philip Dejean, and William Lamothe, prisoners 
of war, be put in irons, confined in the dungeon of the 
publick jail, debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, 
and excluded all converse except with their keeper. — 
And the Governour orders accordingly." 

These orders were carried into rigorous and well- 
deserved execution, and against which, as will appear 
from the following letter. General Phillips, the British 
commanding officer in Virginia, most earnestly remon- 
strated : 

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

. Williamsbiii^gh, July 17, 1779. 
Sir, 
I some time ago enclosed to you a printed copy of 
an order of Council, by which Governour Hamilton 



lilO LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

was to be confined in irons, in close jail, which has oc- 
casioned a letter from General Phillips, of which the 
enclosed is a copy. The General seems to think that 
a prisoner on capitulation cannot be put in close con- 
finement, though his capitulation should not have pro- 
vided against it. My idea was,, that all persons taken in 
war, were to be deemed prisoners of war. That those 
who surrender on capitulation (or convention) are pris-- 
oners of war also, subject to the same treatment with 
those who surrender at discretion, except only so far 
as the terms of their capitulation or convention shall 
have guarded them. In the capitulation of Governour 
Hamilton, no stipulation is made as to the treatment 
of himself, or those taken with him. The Governour, 
indeed, when he signs, adds a flourish of reasons indu- 
cing him to capitulate, one of which is the generosity of 
his enemy. Generosity, on a large and comprehensive 
scale, seems to dictate the making a signal example of 
this gentleman ; but waiving that, iliese are only the pri- 
vate motives inducing him to surrender, and do not en- 
ter into the contract of Colonel Clarke. 1 have the high- 
est idea of those contracts which take place between na- 
tion and nation, at war, and would be the last on earth 
to do any thing in violation of them, I can find noth- 
ing in those books usually recurred to as testimonials 
of the laws and usages of nature and nations, which 
convicts the opinions I have above expressed of errour. 
Yet there may be such an usage as General Phillips 
aeems to suppose, though not taken notice of by these 
writers. I am obliged to trouble your Excellency on 
this occasion, by asking of you information on this 
point. There is no other person, whose decision will 



LIF^ OF JEFFERSON. lU 

SO authoritatively decide this doubt in the publick 
mind, and none with which I am disposed so implicitly 
to comply. If you ^hall be of opinion that the bare 
existence of a capitulation, in the case of Governour 
Hamilton, privileges him from confinement, though 
there be no article to that effect in the capitulation, jus- 
tice shall most assuredly be done him. The impor- 
tance of this point, in a publick view, and my own 
anxiety under a charge of violation of national faith 
by the Executive of this Commonwealth, will, I hope, 
apologize for my adding this to the many troubles with 
which I know you to be burdened. 

I have the honour, &c. 

Th: Jefferson. 

The three following letters, t© the same exalted per- 
sonage, dismisses the fate of Governour Hamilton, and 
ail connexion of Mr. Jefferson with him. 

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Williamsburgh, Oct. 1, 1779. 
Sir, 
On receipt of your letter of August 6th, during my 
absence, the Council had the irons taken off the prison- 
ers of war. When your advice was asked, we meant 
it should decide with us ; and upon my return to Wil 
liamsburgh, the matter was taken up and the enclosed 
advice given. A parole was formed of which the en^ 
closed is a copy, and tendered to the prisoners. They 
objected to that part of it w^hich restrained them from 
saying any thing to the prejudice of the United States, 
and insisted on "freedom of speech." They were, in 



112 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

consequence, remanded to their confinement in tlie jail? 
whicli must be considered as a voluntary one, until they 
can determine with themselves to be inoffensive in 
word as well as deed. A flag sails hence to-morrow 
to New York, to negotiate the exchange of some pri- 
soners. By her I have written to General Phillips on 
this subject, and enclosed to him copies of the within ; 
intending it as an answer to a letter I received from 
him on the subject of Governour Hamilton. 
I have the honour, &c. 

Th: Jefferson. 

TO THE SAME. 

Williamsburgh, Oct. 2, 1779. 
Sift, 
Just as the letter accompanying this was going off, 

Colonel Mathews arrived on parole from New York 
by the way of head quarters, bringing your Excellen- 
cy's letter on this subject, with that of the British com- 
missar)'- of prisoners. The subject is of great impor- 
tance, and I must, therefore, reserve myself to answer 
after further consideration. Were I to speak from pre- 
sent impressions, I should say it was happy for Gov- 
ernour Hamilton that a final determination of his fate 
was formed before this new information. As the ene- 
my have released Captain Willing from his irons, the 
Executive of this state will be induced perhaps not to 
alter their former opinion. But it is impossible they 
can be serious in attempting to bully us in this manner. 
We have too many of their subjects in our power, 
and too much iron to clothe them with, and, I will add, 
too much resolution to avail ourselves of both, to feai 



XIFE OT JEFrERSOV. 113 

iheir pretended retaliation. However, I will do myself 
the honour of forwarding to your Excellency the ulti- 
mate result of Council on this subject. 

In consequence of the information in the ktt^r from 
the British commissary of prisoners, that no officers of 
the Virginia line should be exchanged till Governour 
Hamilton's affair should be settled, we have stopped 
our flag, which was just hoisting anchor with a load of 
privates for New York. I must, therefore, ask the 
favour of your Excellency t-o forward the enclosed by 
flag, when an opportunity offers, as I suppose General 
Phillips will be in New York before it reaches you. 
I have the honour, &c. 

Th : Jefferson. 

TO THE SAME. 

In CouGcil, Oct. 8, 1779. 
Sir, 

In mine of the second of the present month, written 
in the instant of Colonel Mathews' delivery of your 
letter, I informed you what had been done on the sub> 
ject of Governour Hamilton and his companions previ- 
ous to that moment. I now enclose you an advice of 
Council, in consequence of the letter you were pleased 
to enclose me, from the British commissary of prison- 
ers, with one from Lord Rawdon ; also a copy of my 
letter to Colonel Mathews, enclosing, also, the papers 
therein named. The advice of Council to allow the 
enlargement of prisoners, on their giving a proper pa- 
role, has not been recalled, nor will it be, I suppose, un- 
less something on the part of the enemy should render 
it necessary. I rather expect, however, that they will 
11 



114 LIFE OF JEFFERSOJf. 

see it their interest to discontinue this kind of conduct. 
I am afraid 1 shall hereafter, perhaps, be obliged to 
give your Excellency some trouble in aiding me to ob- 
tain information of the future usage of our prisoners. 
I shall give immediate orders for having in readiness 
every engine which the enemy have contrived for the 
destruction of our unhappy citizens, captivated by 
them.' The presentiment of these operations is shock- 
ing beyond expression. I pray Heaven to avert them : 
but nothing in this world will do it but a proper con- 
duct in the enemy. In every event, I shall resign 
myself to the hard necessity under which I shall act, 
I have the honour, &c. 

Th: Jefferson. 

These measures of retaliation resulted with the 
happiest effects, and the enemy soon became convinced 
that we had "too many of their subjects in our'power, 
and too much iron to clothe them with." Thus, when 
neither the dictates of humanity nor the usages of ci- 
vilized society could claim attention, distressing expe- 
rience forced itself into notice and obtained considera- 
tion. But the Governour w^as still vigilant, and stood 
prepared to adopt again the same system, Avhen the 
British government should resort to their former prac- 
tices. In a letter to the commander in chief, dated 
November 28th, 1779, he remarks: " Lamothe and 
Dejean have given their paroles, and are at Hanover 
Court House. Hamilton, Hay, and others, are still 
obstinate ; therefore, still in close confinement, though 
their irons have never been on since your second letter 
on the subject. I wrote full information of this matter 



IIFE OF JEFFERSON, 115 

to General Phillips also, from whom I had received 
letters on the subject. I cannot, in reason, believe that 
the enemy, on receiving this information, either from 
yourself or General Phillips, will venture to impose 
any new cruelties on our officers in captivity with 
them. Yet their conduct, hitherto, has been most suc- 
cessfully prognosticated by reversing the conclusions 
of right reason. It is, therefore, my duty, as well as 
it was my promise to the Virginia captives, to take 
measures for discovering any change which may be 
made in their situation. For this purpose, I must apply 
for your Excellency's interposition. I doubt not but 
you have an established mode of knowing, at all times, 
through your commissary of prisoners, the precise 
state of those in the power of the enemy. I must, 
therefore, pray you to put into motion any such means 
you have, for obtaining knowledge of the situation of 
Virginia officers in captivity. If you should think 
proper, as I could wish, to take upon yourself to retail* 
ate any new sufferings which may be imposed on 
them, it will be more likely to have due weight, and 
to restore the unhappy on both sides, to that benevolent 
treatment for which all should wish." 

The intermediate situation of Virginia had, hither- 
to, in a great measure, saved her interiour from the rava- 
ges of invasion. The storm of war had spent its forces 
on the more northern states, and was now beginning to 
burst with all its horrours upon the south, while Vir- 
ginia was left to throw its aids in whatever quarter it 
was required. 

In tracing these military operations, especially so far 
as the subject of these memoirs is connected with them, 



116 LITE or jrErrERsoN. 

we must derive much of our information from the lu- 
cid and happy detail contained in the " Biography of 
the Signers to the Declaration of Independence," a 
work to which we acknowledge previous obligations. 
This, with the correspondence of Mr. Jefferson him- 
self, will be sufficient guides to every important event 
which occurred during his administration of the af- 
fairs of Virginia. More acceptable companions we 
could not present to the reader, and any thing we 
might offer, would be dull and uninteresting to the in- 
struction and entertainment they afford. 

In the spring of 1780, says the biographical annal- 
ist, the ferocious Tarleton had made his appearance 
on the southern borders of Virginia, marking his path 
with unusual barbarity. Immediately after him, fol- 
lowed the main army and Lord Cornwallis. It was 
then time for this devoted state to exert herself Troops 
were rapidly raised and sent off to the south, lines of 
communication established, and every preparation 
made to meet the enemy. It is needless to remark, 
that all the former habits and pursuits of the Gover- 
nour, had been of a kind little likely to fit him for 
military command; but aware of the importance of 
energy and exertion, at such a crisis, he bent his mind 
to the new task which fortune had thrown upon him,, 
with alacrity and ardour. " Our intelligence from the 
southward," writes Mr. Jefferson to General Wash- 
ington on the eleventh June, " is most lamentably de- 
fective. Though Charleston has now been in the 
hands of the enemy a month, we hear nothing of their 
movements, which can be relied on. Rumours say 
that they are penetrating northward. To remedy this 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 117 

defect, I shall immediately establish a line of expresses 
from hence to the neighbourhood of their army, and 
send thither a sensible, judicious person, to give us in- 
formation of their movements. This intelligence will, 
I hope, be conveyed at the rate of one hundred and 
twenty miles in the twenty-four hours. They set out 
to their stations to-morrow. I wish it were possible 
that" a like speedy line of communication could be 
formed, from hence to your Excellency's head quarters. 
Perfect and speedy information of what is passing in 
the south, might put it in your power, perhaps, to frame 
your measures by theirs. There is really nothing to 
oppose the progress of the enemy northward, but the 
cautious principle of the military art. North Carolina 
is without arms. They do not abound with us. Those 
we have are freely imparted to them ; but such is the 
state of their resources, that they have not been able to 
move a single musket from this state to theirs. All 
the wagons we can collect here have been furnished 
to the Baron De Kalb, and are assembled for the 
march of two thousand five hundred men under Gen- 
eral Stevens, of Culpepper, who will move on the 
nineteenth instant. I have written to Congress to has- 
ten supplies of arms and military stores for the south- 
ern states, and particularly to aid us with cartridge pa- 
per and boxes, the want of which articles, small as 
they 8Lre, renders our stores useless. The want of mo- 
ney cramps every effort. This will be supplied by 
the most unpalatable of all substitutes, force. Your 
Excellency will readily conceive, that after the loss of 
our army, our eyes are turned towards the other, and 
that we comfort ourselves with the hope, that if any 



118 LITE OF JEFFERSOK". 

aids can be furnished by you, without defeating op- 
erations more beneficial to the Union, they will be 
furnished. At the same time, I am happy to find that 
the wishes of the people go no further, as far as I 
have an opportunity of learning their sentiments. — 
Could arms be furnished, I think this state and North. 
Carolina would embody from ten to fifteen thousand 
militia immediately, and more, if necessary. I hope 
ere long to be able to give you a more certain state- 
ment of the enemy's as well as our own situation." 
On July 2d, in a letter to the same, he writes : " I have 
received from the committee of Congress, at head 
quarters, three letters calling for aids of men and pro- 
visions. I beg leave to refer you to my letter to them, 
of this date, on those subjects. I thought it necessary, 
however, to suggest to you the preparing an arrange- 
ment of officers for the men ; for though they are to 
supply our battalions, yet, as our whole line officers,, 
almost, are in captivity, I suppose some temporary pro- 
vision must be made. We cheerfully transfer to you 
every power which the Executive might exercise on 
this occasion. As it is possible you may cast your eye 
on the unemployed officers now within the state, I 
write to General Muhlenburg to send you a return of 
them. I think the men w^ill be rendezvoused wathin 
the present month. The bill, indeed, for raising them 
is not actually passed, but it is in its last stage, and no 
opposition to any essential parts of it. I will take care 
to notify you of its passsge. I have, with great pain, 
perceived your situation; and the more so, as, being 
situated between two fires, a division of sentiment has 
arisen both in Congress and here, as to which the re- 



LIFE OP JEFFEaSON. 119^ 

sources of this country should be sent. The removal 
of General Clinton to the northward must, of course, 
have great influence on the determination of this ques- 
tion ; and I have no doubt but considerable aids may- 
be drawn hence for your army, unless a larger one 
should be embodied in the souths than the force of the 
enemy there seems to call for." 

The legislature had become fully aware of their 
danger, and adopted the most vigorous measures for 
the increase and support of the southern army. They 
conferred on the Governour new and extraordinary 
powers; and that officer exerted himself in every 
mode which ingenuity could suggest, to ward off the 
approaching danger. 

While, however, all eyes were turned to the south, 
and the anxiety of expectation rested there, a sudden 
attack in another quarter was the more disastrous, as 
it was totally unforeseen. 

Arnold, whose treachery seems to have increased 
the natural daring and recklessness of his temper, aware 
of the unprotected situation of Virginia on the sea- 
board, formed a plan for an attack on that quarter. — 
He set sail from New York, with sixteen hundred 
men, and, supported by a number of armed vessels, 
ascended James river, and landed about fifteen miles 
below Richmond. All the militia of the state that 
could be supplied with arms, had been already called 
out, and placed in the neighbourhood of Williamsburgh, 
under the orders of General Nelson, This event 
seemed to leave the Governour almost without re- 
source; he saw the enemy Avithin a few miles of the 
capital of the state,, which was entirely undefended ; 



120 

he collected hastily about two hundred half-armed 
militia, whom he placed under the command of Baron 
Steuben, for the purpose of protecting the removal of 
the^ records and military stores across James river; he 
superintended their movements in person, with the ut- 
most zeal, courage, and prudence; and he was seen 
coolly issuing his orders until the enemy had actually 
entered the lower part of the town, and began to flank 
it with their light horse. " As the order for drawing 
militia here," Avrites the Governour to General Wash- 
ington, " had been given but two days, no opposi- 
tion was in readiness. Every effort was therefore ne- 
cessary to withdraw the arms and other military stores, 
records, &c. from this place. Every effort was accord- 
ingly exerted to convey them to the foundry, five miles, 
and to a laboratory, six miles above this place, till 
about sunset of that day, when we learned that the 
enemy had come to an anchor at Westover that 
morning. We then knew that this, and not Pe- 
tersburgh, was their object, and began to carry across 
the river every thing remaining here, and to remove 
what had been transported to the foundry and labora- 
tory, to Westham, the nearest crossing, seven miles 
above this place, which operation was continued till 
they had approached very near. They marched from 
Westover at two o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th, 
and entered Richmond at one o'clock in the afternoon 
of the 5th. A regiment of infantry and about thirty 
horse continued on, without halting, to the foundry. 
They burnt that, the boring mill, the magazine, and 
two other houses, and proceeded to Westham : but noth- 
ing being in their power there, they retired to Rich- 



LITE or JErrERSGJT. 121 

mond. The next morning they burnt some buildings 
of publick and private property, with what stores re- 
mained in them, destroyed a great quantity of private 
stores, and about twelve o'clock retired towards West- 
over, where they encamped within the Neck the next 
day. The loss sustained is not yet accurately known. 
As far as I have been able to discover, it consisted, at 
thi's place, of about three hundred muskets, some sol- 
diers' clothing to a small amount, some quarter-mas- 
ter's stores, of which one hundred and twenty sides of 
leather was the principal article, part of the artificers' 
tools, and three wagons. Besides which, five brass 
four-pounders, which we had sunk in the river, were 
discovered to them, raised and carried off. At the 
foundry, we lost the greater part of the papers belong- 
ing to the Auditor's office, and of the books and pa- 
pers of the Council office. About five or six tons of 
powder, as we conjecture, was thrown into the canal,, 
of which there will be a considerable saving by re- 
manufacturing it. The roof of the foundry was 
burned, but the stacks of chimneys and furnaces not 
at all injured. The boring mill was consumed. — 
Within less than forty-eight hours from the time of 
their landing, and nineteen from our knowing their 
destination, they had penetrated thirty-three miles, 
done the whole injury, and retired. Their numbers, 
from the best intelligence I have had, are about fifteen 
hundred infantry, and as to their cavalry, accounts vary 
from fifty to one hundred and twenty ; and the whole 
commanded by the parricide Arnold. Should they 
loiter a little longer, I still flatter myself they Avill not 
escape with total impunity. To what place they will 



122 LIFE OF JETFERSON. 

point their next exertions we cannot even conjecture. 
The whole country on the tide waters and some disc 
tance from them, is equally open to similar insults." 

Major General Steuben, assisted by General Nel- 
son, having by this time collected a considerable force, 
marched in pursuit of Arnold. But the movements of 
the latter were too rapid to be interrupted by the tardy 
advances of undisciplined militia. They were, hoAV- 
ever, able to prevent similar incursions, and by re- 
maining in the vicinity of Portsmouth, they confined 
the enemy to their intrenchments. 

Although Arnold had thus succeeded in plundering 
and ravaging the country, the Govern our determined 
that, if possible, the traitor should not eventually es- 
cape. He had no doubt of his capture, if a plan were 
prudently formed, and boldly carried into execution. 
The scheme which suggested itself for this purpose is 
best explained by a letter from him to General Muh- 
lenburg, and dated on the 3 1 st of January : 

" Sir — Acquainted as you are with the treasons of 
Arnold, I need say nothing for your information, or to 
give you a proper sentiment of them. You Vvdll read- 
ily suppose that it is above all things desirable to drag 
him from those under whose wing he is now sheltered. 
On his march to and from this place, 1 am certain it 
might have been done with facility, by men of enter- 
prise and firmness. I think it may still be done, though 
perhaps not quite so easily. Having peculiar confi- 
dence in the men from the western side of the moun«- 
tains, I meant, as soon as they should come down, to 
get the enterprise proposed to a chosen number of 
them, such whose courage and whose fidelity would be 



LIf E OF JEFFERSON. 12$ 

above all doubt. Your perfect knowledge of those 
men personally, and my confidence in your discretion, 
induce me to ask you to pick from among them proper 
characters, in such numbers as you think best, to re- 
veal to them our desire, and engage them to undertake 
to seize and bring off this greatest of all traitors. 
Whether this may be best effected by their going in as 
friends, and awaiting their opportunity, or otherwise, 
is left to themselves. The smaller the number the" 
better, so that they may be sufficient to manage him. 
Every necessary caution must be used on their part, to 
prevent a discovery of their design by the enemy. I 
will undertake, if they are successful in bringing him 
off alive, that they shall receive five thousand guineas 
reward among them ; and to men formed for such an 
enterprise, it must be a great incitement to know that 
their names will be recorded with glory in history, 
Avith those of Van Wart, Paulding, and Williams. 
The enclosed order from Baron Steuben will authorize 
you to call for and to dispose of any force you may 
think necessary to place in readiness for covering the 
enterprise, and securing the retreat of the party. Mr. 
Newton, the bearer of this, and to whom its contents 
are communicated in confidence, will provide men of 
trust to go as guides. These may be associated in the 
enterprise or not, as you please: but let the point be 
previously settled, that no difficulty may arise as to 
the parties entitled to participate in the reward. You 
know how necessary profound secrecy is in this busi- 
ness, even if it be not undertaken." 

There was no difficulty in finding men bold enough 
and ready enough to undertake this, or any other 



124 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

hazard ; but the attempt was rendered unavailing* by 
the timely prudence of Arnold, who avoided every ex- 
posure to such a danger. 

Ft ustrated in this plan, the Governour turned his 
attention to another and bolder scale, in which he was 
to be aided by General Washington, and the French 
fleet. The latter, then at Rhode Island, were to sail 
immediately for James river, to prevent the escape of 
the enemy by sea, while a large body of troops should 
be collected on shore, for the purpose of blockading 
them, and ultimately compelling a surrender. On the 
eighth of March, Mr. Jefferson thus writes to the com- 
mander in chief " We have made on our part, every 
preparation which we were able to make. The mili- 
tia proposed to operate will be upwards of four thou- 
sand from this state, and one thousand or twelve hun- 
dred from Carolina, said to be under General Gregory. 
The enemy are at this time, in a great measure, 
blockaded by land, there being a force on the east side 
of Elizabeth river. They suffer for provisions, as 
they are afraid to venture far, lest the French squadron 
should be in the neighbourhood, and come upon them. 
Were it possible to block up the river, a little time 
would suffice to reduce them by want and desertions,* 
and would be more sure in its event than any attempt 
by storm." The French fleet, however, encountered, 
on their arrival at the Chesapeake, a British squadron 
of equal, if not superiour force, by which they were 
driven back; by these means the plan was defeated, 
and Arnold again escaped. 

But Virginia was not yet redeemed from disasters, 
and new difficulties were to be encountered by the tal- 



lAF'E OF JEFFERSON. 125 

^^nts and activity of her Governour. Arnold had 
scarcely left the coast, when Cornwallis entered the 
state on the southern frontier. " I make no doubt you 
will have heard," writes Mr. Jefferson in a communi- 
cation of May 28, shortly after the invasion, to Gen- 
eral Washington, " before this shall have the honour 
of being presented to your Excellency, of the junction 
of Lord Cornwallis with the force at Petersburgh un- 
der Arnold, who had succeeded to the command on 
the death of Major General Phillips. I am now ad- 
vised that they have evacuated Petersburgh, joined at 
Westover a reinforcement of two thousand men just 
arrived from New York, crossed James river, and on 
the 26th instant, were three miles advanced on their 
way towards Richmond ; at which place Major Gene- 
ral the Marquis Lafayette lay with three tPiousand men, 
regulars and militia ; these being the whole number 
we could arm until the arrival of the eleven hundred 
arms from Rhode Island, which are, about this time, 
at the place where our publick stores are deposited. — 
The whole force of the enemy within this state, from 
the best intelligence I have been able to get, is, I think, 
about seven thousand men, infantry and cavalry, inclu- 
ding, also, the small garrison left at Portsmouth. A 
number of privateers, which are constantly ravaging 
the shores of oar rivers, prevent us from receiving any 
aid from the counties lying on navigable waters; and 
powerful operations meditated against our western 
frontier, by a joint force of British and Indian sava- 
ges, have, as your Excellency before knew, obliged us 
to imbody between two and three thousand men in that 
quarter. Your Excellency will judge from this state 
12 



126 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

of things and from what you know of our country, 
what it may probably suffer during the present cam- 
paign. Should the enemy be able to produce no op- 
portunity of annihilating the Marquis' army> a small 
proportion of their force may yet restrain his move- 
ments effectually, while the greater part are employed, 
in detachment, to waste an unarmed country, and lead 
the minds of the people to acquiesce under those 
events, which they see no human power prepared to 
ward off. We are too far removed from the other 
scenes of war, to say whether the main force of thfe 
enemy be within this state. But I suppose they can- 
not any where spare so great an army for the opera- 
tions of the field. Were it possible for this circum- 
stance to justify in your Excellency a determination to 
lend us your personal aid, it is evident from the uni- 
versal voice, that the presence of their beloved country- 
man, whose talents have so long been successfully 
employed in establishing the freedom of kindred states, 
to whose person they have still flattered themselves 
they retain some right, and have ever looked up, as 
their dernier resort in distress, would restore full confi- 
dence of salvation to our citizens, and would render 
them equal to whatever is not impossible. I cannot 
undertake to foresee and obviate the difficulties which 
lie in the way of such a resolution. The whole sub- 
ject is before you, of which I see only detached parts ; 
and your judgement will be formed on a view of the 
whole. Should the danger of this state, and its conse- 
quence to the Union, be such as to render it best for 
the whole that you should repair to its assistance, the 
difficulty would then be, how to keep men out of the 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 127 

field. I have undertaken to hint this matter to your 
Excellency, not only on my own sense of its impor- 
tance to us, but at the solicitations of nG^py members 
of weight in our legislature, which has not yet as- 
sembled to speak their own desires. 

A few days will bring me that relief which the con- 
stitution has prepared for those oppressed with the la- 
bours of my office, and a long declared resolution of 
relinquishing it to abler hands, has prepared my way 
for retirement to a private station : still, as an individu- 
al, I should feel the comfortable effects of your pres- 
ence, and have (what I thought could not have been) 
an additional motive for that gratitude, esteem, and re- 
spect, with which I have the honour to be," &c. 

No country, certainly, was ever worse prepared for 
defence than was Virginia at the time of this hostile 
irruption ; her troops had been drawn off to distant 
quarters, her resources had been exhausted to supply 
other states, and she was alike destitute of military 
stores and of funds to obtain them. The whole bur- 
den of affairs, too, had been thrown on the Governour; 
the legislature had hastily adjourned on the invasion 
of Arnold in January, to meet again at Charlottesville 
on the 24th of May ; in the mean time he had no re- 
source but to make the best of the means which Prov- 
idence had given him, and to depend on that good for- 
tune which had already so often befriended his coun- 
try, at moments the most gloomy and unpromising. — 
To resist invasion, the militia was his only force ; and 
the resort even to this, was limited by the deficiency of 
arms. He used every effort, however, to increase its 
efficacy. When it was sent into the field, he called 



128 LIFE OF S^tFERSOa/ 

into service a number of officers who had r-esigned, 6r 
been thrown out of publick employment by reductions 
of continental regiments for want of men, and gave' 
them commands; an expedient which, together with 
the aid of the old soldiers scattered in the ranks, pro- 
duced a sadden and highly useful degree of skill, dis- 
cipline, and subordination. Men were drafted for the 
regular regiments, and considerable detachments of 
the militia were sent to the south, and a number of 
horses, essentially necessary, were rapidly obtained by 
an expedient of Mr. Jefferson's. Instead of using a 
mercenarj?- agency, he wrote to an individual, general- 
ly a member of Assembly, in each of the counties 
where they were to be had, to purchase a specified 
number with the then expiring paper m.oney. This 
expedient met with a success highly important to the 
common cause. Nor was it sufficient to protect his 
own state alone ; aid was demanded for the Carolinas^- 
and this, though increasing the destitution and distress 
at home, was furnished to a considerable extent. At 
length, however, exhausted by her efforts to aid her 
sister states, almost stripped of arms, without money, 
and harassed on the east and on the west with formi- 
dable invasions, Virginia appeared at last without re- 
sources. 

In this state of things, the 24th of May arrived, but 
it was not until the 28th that the legislature was form- 
ed at Charlottesville, to proceed to business. On that 
day, the Governour addressed that letter to the com- 
mander in chief which we have last inserted. On the 
2d of June, the term for which Mr. Jefferson had beeu 
elected, expired, and he returned to the situation of a, 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 129 

private citizen, after having conducted the affairs of 
his state through a period of difficulty and danger, 
without any parallel in its preceding or subsequent 
history, and with a prudence and energy that might 
have gained him more fame, had the times been less 
unpropitious, but which, from that very reason, have 
been, and will be, more appreciated and honoured in 
succeeding times. " I resigned," says he, "from a be- 
lief that, under the pressure of the invasion under 
which we were then labouring, the publick would have 
more confidence in a military chief, and that, the mili- 
tary commander being invested with the civil power 
also, both might be wielded with more energy, promp- 
titude and effect, for the defence of the state." 

Two days after his retirement from the government, 
says the biographer who has already afforded us our 
information of the military events during his adminis- 
tration, and when on his estate at Monticello, intelli- 
gence was suddenly brought that Tarleton, at the head 
of two hundred and fifty horse, had left the main army 
for the purpose of surprising and capturing the mem- 
bers of Assembly at Charlottesville. The house had 
just met, and was about to commence business, when 
the alarm was given ; they had scarcely taken time to 
adjourn informally to meet at Staunton on the seventh, 
when the enemy entered the village, in the confident 
expectation of an easy prey. The escape was indeed 
narrow, but no one Avas taken. In pursuing the legis- 
lature, however, tJie Governour was not forgotten ; a 
troop of horse under a Captain M'Leod had been de- 
spatched to Monticello, fortunately with no better suc- 
cess. The intelligence received at Charlottesville was 



130 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

soon conveyed thither, the distance between the two? 
places being very short. Mr. Jefferson immediately 
ordered a carriage to be in readiness to carry off his 
family, who, however, breakfasted at leisure with some 
guests. Soon after breakfast, and when the visiters 
had leftMhe house, a neighbour rode up in full speed, 
with the intelligence that a troop of horse was then 
ascending the hill. Mr. Jefferson now sent off his 
family, and after a short delay for some indispensable 
arrangements, mounted his horse, and taking a course 
through the woods, joined them at the house of a friend, 
where they dined. It would scarcely be believed by 
those not acquainted with the fact, that this flight of a 
single and unarmed man from a troop of cavalry, whose 
whole legion, too, was within supporting distance, and 
whose main object was his capture, has been the sub- 
ject of volumes of reproach, in prose and poetry, serious 
and sarcastick. 

In answer to some inquiries from Dr. Gordon, Mr. 
Jefferson gives the following account of the treatment 
his property received, both from Tarleton and Lord 
Cornwallis : " You ask in your letter of April the 
24th, details of my sufferings by Colonel Tarleton. I 
did not suffer by him. On the contrary, he behaved 
very genteelly with me. On his approach to Char- 
lottesville, which is within three miles of my house at 
Monticello, he despatched a troop of his horse, under 
Captain M'Leod, with the double object of taking me 
prisoner, with the two Speakers of the Senate and Del- 
egates, who then lodged with me, and of remaining 
there in vidette, my house commanding a view of ten 
or twelve miles round about. He gave strict orders to 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. IS! 

Captain M'Leod to suffer nothing to be injured. The 
troop failed in one of their objects, as we had notice of 
their coming, so that the two Speakers had gone off 
about two hours before their arrival at Monticello, and 
myself, with my family, about five minutes. But Cap- 
tain M'Leod preserved every thing with sacred care, 
during about eighteen hours that he remained there. 
Colonel Tarleton was just so long at Charlottesville, 
being hurried from thence by the news of the rising of 
the militia, and by a sudden fall of rain, which threat- 
ened to swell the river and intercept his return. In 
general, he did little injury to the inhabitants on that 
short and hasty excursion, which was of about sixty 
miles from their main army, then in Spottsylvania,, 
and ours in Orange. It was early in June, 1781. Lord 
Cornwallis then proceeded to the point of Fork, and. 
encamped his army from thence all along the main. 
James river, to a seat of mine called Elk Hill, opposite 
to Elk Island, and a little below the mouth of the Byrd 
Creek. He remained in this position ten days, his 
iown head quarters being in my house at that place. I 
had time to remove most of the effects out of the house. 
He destroyed ail my growing crops of corn and tobac- 
l! CO : he burned all my barns, containing the same arti- 
pcles of the last year, having first taken what corn he 
wanted ; he used, as was to be expected, all my stock 
of cattle, sheep and hogs, for the sustenance of his 
army, and carried off all the horses capable of service ; 
of those too young for service, he cut the throats ; and 
he burned all the fences on the plantation, so as to leave 
it an absolute waste. He carried off also about thirty 
slaves. Had this been to give them freedom, he would 



I3'2 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

have done right : but it was to consign them to inevi- 
table death from the smallpox and putrid fever, tlien 
raging in his camp. This I knew afterwards to be the 
fate of twenty-seven of them. I never had news of the 
remaining three, but presume they shared the same 
fate. When I say that Lord Cornwallis did all this, ^ 
do not mean that he carried about the torch with h, 
own hands, but that it was all done under his own eye 
the situation of the house in which he was, comman 
ing a view of every part of the plantation, so that 1 
must have seen every fire. I relate these things on n 
own knowledge, in a great degree, as I was on t 
ground soon after he left it. He treated the rest oft 
neighbourhood somewhat in the same style, but r 
with that spirit of total extermination with which 
seemed to rage over my plantation. Whereever 
went, the dwelling houses were plundered of eve 
thing which could be carried off. Lord Cornwalli 
character in England would forbid the belief that 
shared in the plunder ; but that his table was serA 
with the plate thus pillaged from private houses, c 
be proved by many hundred eye-witnesses. From 
estimate I made at that time, on the best informatioi 
could collect, I suppose the state of Virginia lost un( 
Lord Cornwallis' s hands, that year, about thirty th( 
sand slaves ; and that of these, about twenty-se\ . 
thousand died of the smallpox and camp fever, and the 
rest were partly sent to the West Indies, and exchanged 
for ruiTi, sugar, coffee, and fruit, and partly sent to 
New York, from whence they went at the peace, either 
to Nova Scotia or England. From this last place, I 
believe they have lately been sent to Africa. History 

I 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 132fe 

will never relate the horrours committed by the British 
army in the southern states of America, They raged 
in Virginia six months only, from the middle of April 
to the middle of October, 1781, when they were all 
taken prisoners ; and I give you a faithful specimen of 
their transactions for ten days of that time, and on one 
spot only. Ex pedc Herculem. I suppose their whole 
devastations during those six months amounted tO' 
about three millions sterling." 

In times of difficulty and danger, it is seldom that 
the actions of the wisest and the best can escape with- 
out censure. Where they are not the marks of ma- 
levolence, they are yet dwelt on with morbid distrust 
by the discontented and the timid ; they are contrasted 
by every speculative reasoner Avith the fanciful schemes 
which his own imagination has suggested; and if they 
do not chance to be crowned with unexpected success, 
the failure is attributed to intrinsick weakness, rather 
than to unavoidable accident. In the preceding pages 
a rapid sketch has been recorded of the publick acts of 
Mr. Jefferson during the singularly eventful period in 
which he was placed at the head of the government in 
Virginia. The truth of those facts may be relied on. 
From them, a reader of the present day, far removed 
from the bustle and feelings of the times, may form a 
calm judgement of the principles and talents of the man,, 
when placed in this station of unexpected difficulty. 
There is little danger in asserting, that such a judge- 
ment will be as favourable to the zeal and talents of the 
statesman, as it will be honourable to the feelings and 
patriotism of the man. It would, therefore, seem almost 
useless to record imputed errours and unfounded char*. 



1S4 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

ges with regard to him, which have passed into oblivion 

by the lapse of years, were it not in some degree a 
duty, not to pass urm&ticed, events which, in their own 
day at lea^t, excited considerable attention. 

The meeting of the legislature at Staunton was at- 
tended by several members who had not been present 
at Richmond at the period of Arnold's incursion. One 
of these, Mr. George Nicholas, actuated, it is said, by 
no unkind feelings, yet, it must be acknowledged, whh 
a patriotism somewhat too ardent, accused the late Gov- 
ernour of great remissness in his measures on that oe- 
casion, and moved for an inquiry relative to them. To 
this Mr. Jefferson nor his friends had the least objec- 
tion, nor did they make the slightest opposhion. The 
ensuing session of the legislature was the period fixed 
for the investigation, but before it arrived, Mr. Nicho- 
las, convinced that the charges were unfounded, in the 
most honourable and candid manner declined the far- 
ther prosecution of the affair. In the mean time, that 
he might be placed on equal grounds for meeting the 
inquiry, one of the representatives of his county re- 
signed his seat, and Mr. Jefferson was unanimously 
elected in his place. When the house assembled, no 
one appeared to bring forward the investigation ; he, 
however, rose in his place, and recapitulating the char- 
ges Avhich had been made, stated in brief terms his own 
justification. His remarks, were no sooner concluded, 
than the house passed unanimously the following 
resolution : 

"Resolved, That the sincere thanks of the General 
Assembly be given to our former Governour, Thom- 
5(5 Jefferson, for his impartial, upright, and attentive ad- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 135 

ministration whilst in office. The Assembly wish, in 
the strongest manner, to declare the high opinion they 
entertain of Mr. Jefferson's ability, rectitude, and in- 
tegrity, as chief magistrate of this commonwealth, and 
mean, by thus publickly avowing their opinion, to ob- 
viate 9.nd to remove all unmerited censures." 

It is due to Mr. Nicholas to state, that in a publica- 
tion some time afterwards, he made an honourable ac- 
knowledgment of the erroneous views he had enter- 
tained on the subject. The same candour has not mark- 
ed all the opponents of Mr. Jefferson : but we are not, 
however, now to learn, that in the violence of politi- 
cal asperity, circumstances long proved, and generally 
acknowledged to be incorrect, are brought forward 
with no inconsiderable effrontery, and the mild and 
virtuous must be content to wait until time has swept 
away the fabrications and assertions of faction, and con- 
firmed that which is founded in honesty and truth. 

On the 15th June, 1781, Mr. Jefferson w^as appoint- 
ed, with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and 
Mr. Laurens, a Minister Plenipotentiary for negotia- 
ting peace, then expected to be effected through the me- 
diation of the Em-press of Russia: but such was the state 
of his family, that he could neither leave it nor expose 
it to the dangers of the sea, and was consequently obli- 
ged to decline. In the autumn of the next year, Con- 
g-ress having received assurances that a general peace 
would be concluded in the winter and spring, renewed 
his appointment on the 13th November of that year. 
Two months before the last appointment, he had lost 
the cherished companion of his life, in whose affec- 
tions, unabated on both sides, he had lived the last ten 



130 LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 

years in unchequered happiness. With the publick in- 
terests, the state of his mind concurred in recommend- 
ing the change of scene proposed ; he accordingly ac- 
cepted the appointment, and left Monticello on the 19th 
of December, 1782, for Philadelphia, where he arrived 
on the 27th. The minister of France, Luzerne, offer- 
ed him a passsage in the Romulus frigate, and which 
was accepted; but she was then lying a few miles be- 
low Baltimore, blocked up in the ice. Mr. Jefferson 
remained, therefore, a month in Philadelphia, looking 
over the papers in the office of state, mid possessing 
himself of the general situation of our foreign relations, 
and then went to Baltimore, to await the liberation of 
the frigate from the ice. After waiting there nearly 
a month, information was received, that a provisional 
treaty of peace had been signed by our Commission- 
ers on the 3d of September, 1782, to become absolute 
on the conclusion of peace between France and Great 
Britain. Considering his proceeding to Europe as now 
of no utility to the publick, he returned immediately to 
Philadelphia, to take the orders of Congress, and was 
excused by them from further proceeding. He there- 
fore returned home, and arrived there on the 15th of 
May, 1783. 

On the sixth of June, 1783, Mr. Jefferson was again 
elected a delegate to Congress, the appointment to take 
place on the 1st of November ensuing, when that of 
the existing delegation would expire. He according- 
ly left home on the 16th of October, arrived at Tren- 
ton, where Congress was sitting, on the 3d November, 
and took his seat on the 4th, on which day Congress 
adjourned, to meet at Annapolis on the 26th. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 137 

""Congress," says he, "had now become a very 
small body, and the members very remiss in their at- 
tendance on its duties, insomuch that a majority of the 
states, necessary by the Confederation to constitute a 
house, even for minor business, did not assemble until 
the )3th of December, 

In this body, Mr. Jefferson, as was to be expected, 
look a prominent station, and became, at once, engaged 
in all the principal measures that occupied the publick 
attention. Among other services rendered by him, was 
that of establishing a standard of value for the country, 
and the adoption of a money unit. "They," (Con- 
gress,) says Mr. Jefferson, "as early as January 7, 1782, 
had turned their attention to the moneys current in the 
several states, and had directed the Financier, Robert 
Morris, to report to them a table of rates, at Avhich the 
foreign coins should be received at the treasury. That 
officer, or rather his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, 
answered them on the i5th, in an able and elaborate 
statement of the denominations of money current in the 
several states, and of the comparative value of the 
foreign coins chiefly in circulation with us. He went 
into the consideration of the necessity of establishing 
a standard of value with us, and of the adoption of a 
money unit. He proposed for that unit, such a fraction 
of pure silver as would be a common measure of the 
penny of every state, without leaving a fraction. This 
common divisor he found to be y^V o ^^ ^ dollar, or j-g^s 
of the crown sterling. The value of a dollar was, 
therefore, to be expressed by 1440 units, and of a crown 
by 1600: each unit containing a quarter of a grain of 
fine silver. Congress turning again their attention to 
13 



138 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

this subject the following year, the Financier, by a 
letter of April 30, 1783, further explained and urged 
the unit he had proposed, but nothing more was done 
on it until the ensuing year, when it was again taken 
up, and referred to a committee, of which I was a 
member. The general views of the Financier were 
sound, and the principle was ingenious on which he 
proposed to found his unit : but it was too minute for 
ordinary use, too laborioiis for computation, either by 
the head or in figures. The price of a loaf of breads 
■^\ of a dollar, would be 72 units. A pound of butter^ 
I of a dollar, 288 units. A horse, or bullock, of eighty 
dollars' value, would require a notation of six figures, 
to wit, 115,200; and the publiek debt, suppose of 
eighty millions, would require twelve figures, to wit,, 
115,200,000,000 units. Such a system of money- 
arithmetick would be entirely unmanageable for the 
common purposes of society. I proposed, therefore, 
instead of this, to adopt the dollar as our unit of account 
and payment, and that its divisions and subdivisions 
should be in the decimal ratio. I wrote some notes on 
the subject, which I submitted to the consideration of 
the Financier. I received his answer, and adherence 
to his general system, only agreeing to take for his 
unit one hundred of those he first proposed, so that a 
dollar should be Hy^^, and a crown 15 units. I re- 
plied to this, and printed my Note^ and Reply on a 
flying sheet, which I put into the hands of the members 
of Congress for consideration, and the committee agreed 
to report on my principle. This was adopted the en- 
suing year, and is the system which now prevails. 
The division into dimes, cents, and mills, is now so 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 139 

well understood, that it would be easy of introduction 
into the kindred branches of weights and measures. 
I use, when I travel, an Odometer of Clarke's inven- 
tion, which divides the mile into cents, and I find every- 
one comprehends a distance readily, when stated to 
him in miles and cents ; so he would in feet and cents, 
pounds and cents, &c." 

I will again extract, from the memoirs of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, what follows below, for the sake of introducing 
a practical anecdote from Dr. Franklin : " The re- 
missness of Congress, and their permanent session, 
began to be a subject of uneasiness ; and even some of 
the legislatures had recommended to them intermis- 
sions, and periodical sessions. As the Confederation 
had made no provision for a visible head of the gov- 
ernment during vacations of Congress, and such a one 
was necessary to superintend the executive business, 
to receive and communicate with foreign ministers and 
nations, and to assemble Congress on sudden and ex- 
traordinary emergencies, I proposed, early in April, 
the appointment of a committee to be called the "Com- 
mittee of the States," to consist of a member from each 
state, who should remain in session during the recess 
of Congress ; that the functions of Congress should be 
divided into executive and legislative, the latter to be 
reserved, and the former, by a general resolution, to be 
delegated to that committee. This proposition was 
afterwards agreed to ; a committee appointed, who af- 
terwards entered on duty on the subsequent adjourn- 
ment of Congress, quarrelled very soon, split into two 
parties, abandoned their post, and left the government 
without any visible head, until the next meeting of 



140 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

Congress. We have since seen the same thing taker 
place in the Directory of France ; and I believe it will 
for ever take place in any Executive consisting of a 
plurality. Our plan best, I believe, combines wisdom 
and practicability, by providing a plurality of counsel- 
lors, but a single arbiter for ultimate decision. I was 
in France when we heard of this schism and separation 
of our committee, and speaking with Dr. Franklin of 
this singular disposition of men to quarrel, and divide 
into parties, he gave his sentiments, as usual, by way 
of apologue. He mentioned the Eddystone lighthouse, 
in the British channel, as berhg built on a rock, in the 
mid-channel, totally inaccessible in winter, from the 
boisterous character of that sea, in that season ; that, 
therefore, for the two keepers, and there are only two, 
employed to keep up the lights, all provisions for the^ 
winter were necessarity carried to them in autumn, as 
they could never be visited again till the return of the 
milder season ; that on the first practicable day in the 
spring, a boat puts off to them with fresh supplies. 
Tile boatmen met at the door one of the keepers, and 
accosted him with a ' How goes it, friend V ' Very 
well.' ' How is your companion T ' I do net know.' 
' Don't know ? — is he not here V ' I can't tell.' ' Have 
you not seen him to-day V ' No.' ' When did you 
see him V ' Not since last fall.' ' You have killed 
him.' ' Not I, indeed.' They were about to lay hold 
of him, as having certainly murdered his companion ' 
but he desired them to go up stairs and examine for 
themselves. They went up, and there found the other 
keeper. They had quarrelled, it seems, soon after being 
left there, had divided into two parties, assigned the 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 141 

cares below to one, and those above to the other, and 
had never spoken to, or seen, one another since." 

The following advice is good, and even at the pre- 
sent day is not totally inapplicable : " Our body was 
little numerous, but very contentious. Day after day 
was wasted on the most unimportant questions, A 
member, one of those afflicted with the morbid rage of 
debate, of an ardent mind, prompt imagination, and co- 
pious flow of words, who heard with impatience any 
logick which was not his own, sitting near me on some 
occasion of a trifling but wordy debate, asked me how 
1 could sit in silence, hearing so much false reasoning 
which a Avord should refute? I observed to him, that 
to refute indeed was eas}^, but to silence impossible; 
that in measures brought forward by niyself, I took the 
labouring oar, as was incumbent on me : but that in 
general, I was willing to listen ; that if every sound 
argument or objection was used by some one or other 
of the numerous debaters, it was enough; if not, 1 
thought it sufficient to suggest the omission, without 
going into a repetition of what had been already said 
by others : that this was a waste and abuse of the time 
and patience of the house, which could not be justified. 
And I believe, that if the members of deliberative bo- 
dies were to observe this course generally, they would 
do in a day, what takes them a week; and it is really 
more questionable, than may at first be thought, wheth- 
er Bonaparte's dumb legislature, which said nothing, 
and did much, may not be preferable to one which talks 
much, and does noihing. I served with General 
Washington in the legislature of Virginia, before the 
revolution, and during it, with Dr. Franklin, in Con- 
13* 



142 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

gress. I never heard either of them speak ten mm- 
utes at a time, nor to any but the main point which 
was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders 
to the great points, knowing that the little ones would 
follow of themselves. If the present Congress errs in 
too much talking^ how can it be otherwise, in a body to 
which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, 
whose trade it is to question every thing, yield noth- 
ing, and talk by the hour? That one hundred and 
fiftjr lawyers should do business together, ought not to 
be expected." 

Early in December, letters were received from the 
commissioners in France, accompanied w^ith the de- 
finitive treaty between the United States and Great 
Britain, which had been signed at Paris on the third 
of September. Thoy were immediately referred to a 
committee, of Avhich Mr. Jefferson was chairman. — 
On the fourteenth of January, 1784, on the report of 
this committee, the treaty was unanimously ratified, 
thus putting an end to the eventful struggle between 
the two countries, and confirming the independence 
which had already been gained. 

About this period an opportunity was offered to Mr, 
Jefferson, of expressing again, as he had already so 
frequently done, his earnest desire to provide for the 
emancipation of the negroes, and the entire abolition 
of slavery in the United States. . Being appointed 
chairman of a committee to which w^as assigned the 
task of forming a plan for the temporary government 
of the Western Territory, he introduced into it the fol- 
lowing clause: "That after the year 1800 of the 
ohrisftian era, there shall be neither slavery, nor invol- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 14? 

untary servitude in any of the said states, otherwise 
than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall 
have been convicted to have been personally g-uilty." 
When the report of the committee was presented to 
Congress, these words were, however, struck out. 

On the 7th of May, Congress resolved that a Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary should be appointed, in addition 
to Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin, for negotiating trea- 
ties of commerce w^ith foreign nations, and Mr. Jeffer-^ 
son was elected to that duty. He accordingly left An- 
napolis on the 11th, taking with him his eldest daugh- 
ter, then at Philadelphia, and proceeded to Boston in 
quest of a passage. While passing through the differ- 
ent states, he informed himself of the condition of the 
commerce of each, went on to New Hampshire with 
the same view, and returned to Boston. Thence he 
sailed on the 5th of July in a merchant ship bound to 
Cowes ; which, after a pleasant voyage of nineteen 
days, reached the place of her destination on the 26th. 
After being detained there a few days by the indispo- 
sition of his daughter, he embarked on the 30th for 
Havre, arrived there on the 31st, left it on the 3d of 
August, and arrived at Paris on the 6th. He called 
immediately on Dr. Franklin, at Passy, communicated 
to him their charge, and wrote to Mr. Adams, then at 
the Hague, to join them at Paris. 

" Before I had left America," states Mr, Jefferson in 
his memoirs, " that is to say, in the year 1781, I had 
received a letter from M. de Marbois, of the French 
legation in Philadelphia, informing me, he had been 
instructed by his government to obtain such statistical 
accounts of the different states of our Union, as mighi 



144 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

be useful for their information : and addressing to me- 
a number of queries relative to the state of Virginia. 
I had always made it a practice, whenever an oppor- 
tunity occurred of obtaining any information of our 
country, which might be of use to me in any station, 
publick or private, to commit it to writing. These 
memoranda were on loose papers, bundled up without 
order, and difficult of recurrence, when Iliad occasion 
for a particular one. I thought this a good occasion 
to imbody their substance, which I did in the order of 
Mr. Marbois' queries, so as to answer his wish, and to 
arrange them for my own use. Some friends, to whom 
they were occasionally communicated, washed for co- 
pies ; but their volume rendering this too laborious by 
hand, I proposed to get a few printed for their gratifica- 
tion. I w^as asked such a price, however, as exceeded 
the importance of the object. On my arrival at Paris, 
I found it could be done for a fourth of what I had 
been asked here. I therefore corrected and enlarged 
them, and had two hundred copies printed, under the 
title of ' Notes on Virginia.' I gave a very few copies 
to some particular friends in Europe, and sent the rest 
to my friends in America. An European copy, by 
the death of the owner, got into the hands of a book- 
seller, who engaged its translation, and when ready 
for the press, communicated his intentions and manu- 
script to me, suggesting that 1 should correct it, without 
asking any other permission for the publication. I 
never had seen so wretched an attempt at translation. 
Interverted, abridged, mutilated, and often reversing 
the sense of the original, I found it a blotch of errours 
from beginning to end. I corrected some of the most 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON-, 145 

material, and in that form it was printed in French, 
A London hooTiiscller, on seeing the translation, re- 
quested me to permit him to print the English original. 
I thought it hest to do so, to let the world see that it 
was not really so bad as the French translation had 
mada it appear." Such was the origin and history of 
the celebrated " Notes on Virginia." 

This work comes recommended to us by its bland 
philosophy, the variety Of its information, and the 
charming simplicity of its style. In it, the fanciful 
and absurd theories of Buffon receive a gentle but 
most convincing refutation ; and the greatest philoso- 
pher of his day is prostrated by a citizen of a then 
almost unknown and despised country. And when 
demanded, Mr. Jeflerson can rise with his subject, and 
touch the pinnacle of loftiness in thought and sublimity 
of conception. But, as has been truly remarked, it is 
" in the interesting picture of Indian habits and man- 
ners ; the records of their untutored eloquence; the 
vindication of their bravery, thei;: generosity, and their 
virtue : in the delineation of the character, the fidelity, 
the kindly leelings of the enslaved negro race, whose 
champion he ever vv^as, alike in the times of colonial 
subjection, and of established freedom : in his investi- 
gations relative to religious and political liberty ; in 
his researches in science, philosophy, and antiquity — 
that every reader will find much to instruct and amuse. 
He will not perhaps regret that he chose publick life 
as the great theatre of his ambition, but he will ac- 
knowledge, that his fame would probably have been as 
great in the more peaceful pursuits of science." 

In this work is also contained the famous speech of 



146 LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 

Logan, the Mingo chief, which seems to be no less 
gratifying to the nobility of intellect, than attractive 
as the theme of schoolboy declamation. Whether 
this speech, delivered to Lord. Dunmore, be really the 
speech of this implacable Avarriour, or whether it was 
coined for him by the poetick fancy of his messenger, 
it Avould be difficult to decide. It is certainly charac- 
terized by the laconick and figurative style of the In- 
dians. It would require, however, a keen vision to 
perceive in it that "tender sentiment" and "sublime 
morality," which some of the historians of Virginia say 
it possesses. Is there any thing either tender or sub- 
lime in the declaration of savage vengeance, and the 
confession of having glutted himself with the blood of 
his enemies ? The end of this cormorant chieftain cor- 
responded with his life. After "having killed many, 
and glutted his vengeance with blood," he went to De- 
troit, on his return from which place he was murdered. 
After the return of peace had compelled Logan to for- 
bear the use of the tomahawk and scalping knife, he be- 
came addicted to the Indian's besetting sin, to that de- 
grading and debasing vice w^hich paralj^zes the phy- 
sical powers of man, which boAvs his intellect to im- 
becility, and brings destruction on his temporal for- 
tunes and future prospects — he became a confirmed 
and abandoned sot. The immoderate use of brandy 
had stupified his mental powers, and mingled with the 
jdemoniack ferocity of the savage, the delirious ravings 
of the drunkard. 

But to return from this digression. Full powers 
were given by Congress to Mr. Jefferson and the other 
•ommissioners appointed by them, to form alliances of 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 



Ui 



amity and commerce with foreign states, and on the 
most liberal principles. Their efforts, however, do 
not appear to have been very successful, and indeed, 
after some reflection, and experience, it was thought 
better not to urge them too strongly, but to leave such 
regulations to flow voluntarily from the amicable dispo- 
sitions and the evident interests of the several nations. 
This necessity is not perhaps so much to be regretted 
from any loss sustained in consequence of it to the 
United States, as from the circumstance that it suffer- 
ed to pass unimproved so fortunate an opportunity of 
introducing into the law of nations, those honourable, 
humane, and just stipulations with regard to privateer- 
ing, blockades, contraband, and freedom of fisheries, 
which, at the suggestion of Dr. Franklin, the commis-^ 
sioners had been instructed to introduce, if possible, 
into all the conventions they might form. 

Since the treaty of peace, the English government 
had been particularly distant and unaccommodating in 
its relations with the United States ; but at one period 
of Mr. Jefferson's residence abroad, it was supposed 
that there were some symptoms of better disposition 
shown towards us. On this account he left Paris, and 
on his arrival at London, agreed with Mr. Adams on 
a very summary form of treaty, proposing " an ex- 
change of citizenship for our citizens, our ships, and 
our productions generally, except as to office." At the 
"Qsual presentation, however, to the King and Q,ueen, 
both Mr. Adams and himself were received in the 
most ungracious manner, and they at once discovered, 
that the ulcerations of mind in that quarter, left noth- 
ing to be expected on the particular subject of the visit. 



148 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

A few vague and ineflfectual conferences followed, 
after which he returned to Paris. He did not, howev- 
er,. cease to keep a watchful eye on the proceedings 
and conduct of the British nation, and his letters to the 
department of foreign affairs contain many facts in re^ 
gard to it, and many instances of the jealous and un- 
friendly feeling which sprung from and long survived 
the misfortunes of her colonial conflict. 

Of the personal character of the monarch, Mr. Jef- 
ferson's estimate is certainly not very high, and the 
account he gives of the conduct and dispositions of his 
son, the late King, as it agrees in the main with other 
accounts — as it was written solely for private and con- 
fidential information — and as it could be founded on 
no party or local views — may serve to confirm the 
similar relations current in those times, 

"As the character of the Prince of Wales is becom- 
ing interesting, I have endeavoured to learn what it 
truly is. This is less difficult in his case, than in that 
of other persons of his rank, because he has taken no 
pains to hide himself from the world. The informa- 
tion I most rely on, is from a person here with whom 
I am intimate, who divides his time between Paris and 
London, an Englishman by birth, of truth, sagacity, 
and science. He is of a circle, when in London, which 
has good opportunities of knowing the Prince: but he 
has also himself had special occasions of verifying 
their information by his own personal observation. — 
He happened, when last in London, to be invited to a 
dinner of three persons. The Prince came by chance, 
and made the fourth. He ate half a leg of mutton ; 
did not taste of small dishes, because small; drank 



XIFE OF JEFFERSON. 149 

Champaign and Burgundy as small beer during din- 
ner, and Bordeaux after dinner, as the rest of the com- 
pany. Upon the whole, he ate as much as the other 
three, and drank about two bottles of wine, without 
seeming to feel it. My informant sat next him, and 
being till then unknown to the Prince, personally, 
(though not by character,) and lately from France, the 
Prince confined his conversation almost entirely to 
him. Observing to the Prince that he spoke French 
without the least foreign accent, the Prince told him, 
that, when very young, his father had put only French 
servants about him, and that it was to that circum- 
stance he owed his pronunciation. He led him from 
this to give an account of his education, the total of 
which was the learning a little Latin. He has not a 
single element of mathematicks, of natural or moral 
philosophy, or of any other science on earth, nor, has 
the society he has kept been such as to supply the void 
of education. It has been that of the lowest, the- most 
illiterate and profligate persons of the kingdom, with- 
out choice of rank or mind, and with whom the sub- 
jects of conversation are only horses, or drinking 
matches, and in terms the most vulgar. The young 
nobility who begin by associating with him, soon 
leave him, disgusted with the insupportable profligacy 
of his society ; and Mr. Fox, who has been supposed 
his favourite, and not over-nice in the choice of com- 
pany, would never keep his company habitually. In 
fact, he never associated with a man of sense. He has 
not a single idea of justice, morality, religion, or of the 
rights of men, nor any anxiety for the opinion of the 
world. He carries that indifTerence for fame so far, 
14 



150 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

that he would probably not be hurt were he to lose his 
throne, provided he could be assured of having al- 
ways meat, drink, horses, and women. In the article 
of women, nevertheless, he is become more correct, 
since his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert, who is an 
honest and worthy woman : he is even less crapulous 
than he was. He had a fine person, but it is becoming 
more coarse. He possesses good native common 
sense; is affable, polite, and very good humoured. 
Saying to my informant, on another occasion, 'your 
friend, such a one, dined with me yesterday, and I 
made him damned drunk ;' he replied, ' I am sorry for 
it; I had heard that your loyal highness had left off 
drinking:' the Prince laughed, tapped him on the 
shoulder very good naturedly, without saying a word, 
or ever after showing any displeasure. The Duke of 
York, who was for some time cried up as the prodigy 
of the family, is as profligate, and of less understand- 
ing. To these particular traits, from a man of sense 
and truth, it would be superfluous to add the general 
terms of praise or blame in which he is spoken of by 
other persons, in whose impartiality and penetration I 
have less confidence, A sample is better than a de- 
scription. For the peace of Europe, it is best that the 
King should give such gloamings of recovery, as would 
prevent the regent or his ministry from thinking them- 
selves firm, and yet, that he should not recover." 

The commissioners succeeded in their negotiations 
only with the governments of Morocco and Prussia. 
The treaty with the latter power is so remarkable foi 
some of the provisions it contains, that it stands solitary 
in diplomacy and national law. Blockades arising 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 151 

from ail causes, and of every description, were abolish- 
ed by it ; the flag, in every case, covered the property, 
and contrabands were exempted from confiscation, 
though they might be employed for the use of the cap- 
tos, on payment of their full value. This, it is said, is 
the only convention ever made by America in which 
the last stipulation is introduced, nor is it known to ex- 
ist in any other modern treaty. 

On the tenth of March, 1785, Mr. Jefferson was 
unanimously appointed by Congress to succeed Dr. 
Franklin as minister plenipotentiary at the court of 
Versailles ; and on the expiration of his commission 
in October, 1787, he was again elected to the same 
honourable situation. He remained in France until 
October, 1789. 

While in France, Mr. Jefferson was engaged in 
many diplomatick negotiations of considerable impor- 
tance to this country, though not of sufficient interest 
to arrest the attention of the general reader. "The 
great questions which had so long occupied the pub- 
lick mind, were fitted to arrest the attention of the 
most thoughtless, affecting as they did the policy of 
nations and the fate of empires ; but the details which 
arise out of the interpretation of treaties, or the meas- 
ures which are necessary to increase their effect, and 
to remedy their deficiencies, are interesting only to 
him who studies the minute points of political history. 
These only were the objects which could claim the 
attention of the minister to France, at this period ; they 
did not call forth any prominent display of his great 
and various talents, but they required no ordinary ad- 
dress, involved as they were by the skilful intrigues of 



162 lilFE OF JEFFERSOrr. 

such ministers as Verg-ennes and Calonne, and op- 
posed, forthemost part, byallthemen of influence wh® 
thought that their interests might be compromised or 
endangered. Among the principal benefits then ob- 
tained, and continued to the -United States until the pe- 
riod of the French revolution, were the abolition of 
several monopolies, and the free admission into France 
of tobacco, rice, whale oil, salted fish, and flour ; and 
of the two latter articles into the French West India 
islands. 

During his residence in Europe, Mr. Jefl^erson also 
visited Holland, and his Memoir embraces a brief but 
clear account of the fatal revolution, by which the 
Prince of Orange made himself sovereign of that re- 
publick, so long and honourably independent. He also 
crossed the Alps, and travelled through Lombardy, 
though he did not extend his journey to the southern 
part of the peninsula. In returning to Paris, he visited 
all the principal seaports of the southern and western 
coasts of France, and made many and interesting ob- 
servations with regard to 'the culture of the vine, olive, 
and rice, which were carefully communicated to his 
friends across the Atlantick ; and he had reason to be- 
lieve, afterwards, that they had not failed to produce 
benefits, which, in time, will be of wide-extended utility. 

When Mr. Jefferson reached Paris, he found that 
city in high fermentation from the early events of the 
revolution ; and during the remainder of his stay in 
Europe, his attention was well and fully occupied in 
observing, as an eyewitness, the progress of the extra- 
ordinary occurrences which from that time took place 
in rapid succession. 



LirB OF JEFFERSON. 158 

Simply as the representative of a foreigfn people, he 
might be expected to do this; but his situation as the 
minister of a nation which was supposed to have given 
«he example, and by many, even in this very example, 
Co have lain a train for the subsequent changes, not 
onjy catpsed him to be more curious and. anxious him- 
self, but made him an object of interest and attention to 
the actors in these new scenes. He was, from circum- 
stances, much acquainted with the leading patriots of 
the National Assembly ; and as he came from a country 
which had passed successfully through a similar refor- 
mation, they were naturally disposed to seek his advice 
and place confidence in his opinions^ It would have 
been affectation to deny that he looked with pleasure 
on a successful and beneficial change of the French 
government, not merely from the advantages it would 
bring to an oppressed nation, but as ensuring a general 
improvement in the condition of the people of Europe, 
ground to the dust as they were by the tyranny of their 
rulers. But beyond these wishes he did not deem it 
just or proper to go : and on receiving, upon one occa- 
sion, an official invitation of the Archbishop of Bor- 
deaux to attend and assist at the deliberations of an 
important committee, he excused himself immediately, 
for the obvious reason, that his duties, as a publick 
functionary, forbade him to interfere in the internal 
transactions of the country. He did not, however, 
consider himself restrained from urging upon his friends 
of the patriotick party, and especially upon his intimate 
and influential companion, Lafayette, the propriety, on 
repeated occasions, of immediate and seasonable com- 
promise — of securing what was offered by the govern* 
14* 



154 LIFE OF JEFFERSOir. 

ment — and thus, by degrees, gaining peaceably, whnt 
might be lost by grasping too much at once, or be won^ 
as proved to be the case, if as much ever was after- 
wards won, at sacrifices dreadful beyond calculation. 
The following anecdote is a striking instance taken in 
Mr. Jefferson's opinions, to which we have alluded. 

" I received one morning," he says, " a note from the 
Marquis de Lafayette, informing me, that he should 
bring a party of six or eight friends, to ask a dinner of 
me the next day. I assured them of their welcome. 
When they arrived, they were Lafayette himself, Du- 
port, Barnave, Alexander Lameth, Blacon, Mounier, 
Maubourg, and Dagout. These were leading patriots, 
of honest but differing opinions, sensible of the neces- 
sity of effecting a coalition by mutual sacrifices, know-- 
ing each other, and not afraid, therefore, to unbosom 
themselves mutually. This last was a material principle 
in the selection. With this view, the Marquis had 
invited the conference, and had fixed the time and place 
inadvertently, as to the embarrassment under which it 
might place one. The cloth being removed, and wine 
set on the table, after the American manner, the Mar- 
quis introduced the objects of the conference, by sum- 
marily reminding them of the state of things in the 
Assembly, the course which the principles of the con- 
stitution were taking, and the inevitable result, unless 
checked by more concord among the patriots them- 
selves. He observed, that although he also had his opin- 
ion, he was ready to sacrifice it to that of his brethren of 
the same cause; but that a common opinion must now 
be formed, or the aristocracy would carry every thing, 
and that, whatever they should now agree on, he, lat 



LIFE OF JEFFERSOKo 155 

Che head of the national force, would maintain. The 
discussions began at the hour of four, and were contin- 
ued till ten o'clock in the evening; during which time, 
I was a silent witness to a coolness and candour of ar- 
gument, unusual in the conflicts of political opinions; 
to a, logical reasoning, and chaste eloquence, disfigur- 
ed by no gaudy tinsel of rhetorick or declamation, and 
truly worthy of being placed in parallel with the finest 
dialogues of antiquity as handed to us by Xenophon, 
by Plato, and Cicero. But duties of exculpation were 
now incumbent on me. I waited on Count Montmo- 
rin the next morning, and explained to him, with truth 
and candour, how it had happened that my house had 
been made the scene of conferences of such a charac- 
ter. He told me, he already knew every thing which 
had passed : that so far from taking umbrage at the use 
made of my house on that occasion, he earnestly wished 
I would habitually assist at such conferences, being sure 
I should be usefulin moderating the warmer spirits, 
and promoting a wholesome and practicable reforma- 
tion only. 1 told him, I knew too well the duties I 
owed to the King, the nation, and to my own country, 
to take any part in councils concerning their internal 
government, and that I should persevere, with care, in 
the character of a neutral and passive spectator, with 
wishes only, and very sincere ones, that those meas- 
ttres might prevail which would be for the greatest good 
of the nation. I have no doubt, indeed, that this con- 
ference was previously known and approved by ihia 
honest minister, who was in confidence and communi- 
cation with the patriots, and wished for a reasonable re- 
form of the constitutioHo 



156 LIFE OF JEFFERSOBT, 

On Mr. Jefferson's first arrival in France, (says I 
discerning; writer,) he had not failed to perceive, in the 
situation of the government, and the conduct of the 
tiiinking part of the community, strong indications of 
the necessity of a change, and a desire to arouse the 
nation from, the sleep of despotism into which it Avas 
sunk. Through the medium of the press ; in conversa- 
tion and the intercourse of fashionable life: by the 
power and singular influence of men of letters then 
prevailing ; these sentiments were disseminated with 
new and unheard of freedom. In all societies, male 
and female, politicks had become the universal theme ; 
the witty, the rich, the noble, and the gay, indulged in 
them, perhaps, as much from fashion as reflection ; the 
young women joined the patriotick party as the mode; 
the young men naturally followed in their train. The 
excessive dissipation of the Queen and the court, the 
corrupt and exclusive power of a small portion of the 
nobility who controlled it, the abuses of the pension 
list, the incredible confusion of the finances, the ex- 
hausted treasury amid a load of taxes, had so alarmed 
and paralyzed the ministers, that they had no resource, 
but themselves to make the first step in the revolution, 
by calling in at once the assistance of a popular assem- 
bly. From this period, the tide swelled on irresistibly, 
bringing by degrees one improvement after another, 
and washing away successively the long established 
mounds, w^hich ages of submission on one hand, and 
tyranny on the other, had erected against liberty and 
right ; but at last, unfortunately, overwhelming, for a 
fime, the landmarks which justice and reason had 
formed, as the necessary protection of human and 80- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 15T 

cial institutions. Nothing, indeed, is more extraordi- 
nary in the history of the French revolution, than the 
rapid and total subversion which was effected in the 
institutions of the country. In &uch events, it happens, 
for the most part, that there is rather a removal of indi- 
viduals, a modification of existing systems, a return to 
previous rights claimed or ascertained, which have 
been infringed : but here it was a violent exchange 
from one extreme to the other — the total destruction in 
theory and in practice, of the existing state of things — 
the building up of a new form of government from the 
very foundations — the establishment of the wildest re- 
publicanism on the ruins of the strictest despotism. — 
Perhaps this arose from the fact, (continues the same 
writer,) that there existed, in truth, but two classes of 
society, in regard, at least, to political institutions; the 
one very small in number, and in actual power, who 
were the oppressors : the other embracing the strength, 
sinews, and resources of the nation, vast in numbers, 
but utterly trampled. There was, indeed, no interme- 
diate body — no true aristocracy; that which existed, 
was merely such in name, and by its titles : but it pos- 
sessed no real influence or control. This circum- 
stance placed, at the commencement of the struggle, 
the right to frame a new government, not in the hands 
of those who would merely have changed the form of 
oppression, but of the entire mass of the people them- 
selves, who had never been accustomed, in fact, to the 
existence of any large, intermediate, and powerful class, 
between them and the legal power ; and who, conse- 
quently, in subverting or modifying that, looked only 
to a corresponding augmentation and security of their 



t68 LIFE OF JEFFER&OW. 

own rights. In this respect, the revolution of France 
is strongly contrasted with that of England, which 
was really a revolution of the nobility and landed ar- 
istocracy alone, bringing with it no great improvement 
in the popular institutions or privileges, and certainly 
leaving untouched, an immense mass of antiquated ab- 
surdity in laws and institutions, which a convulsion of 
more popular character could not have failed to demol- 
ish, but which now seems to be regarded either as a 
vital or desirable part of the constitution, or as so 
closely interwoven with it by time, that the abolition 
might endanger the destruction of what it is deemed 
best to preserve at all hazards. 

The residence of Mr. Jefferson in France did not 
extend to that fatal period of the French revolution, 
when its atrocities drew down upon it the execrations 
even of those who rejoiced at the rising of the day-star 
of liberty ; and the copious details which his letters 
embrace, render them, therefore, never-failing sources 
of interest and pleasure. It will not be uninteresting 
to extract from these the account he has given.of several 
of the well known historical personages of the period. 
They have at least the merit of having been sketched 
at the time, under circumstances of observation pecu- 
liarly favourable. 

" The Marquis de Lafayette,^^ he writes, "is a most 
valuable auxiliary to me. His zeal is unbounded, and 
his weight wath those in power, great. His education 
having been merely military, commerce was an un- 
known field to him. But his good sense enabling him 
to comprehend perfectly whatever is explained to hin^ 
his agency has been very efficacious. He has a g^reat 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 159 

"deal of sound genius, is well remarked by the King, 
and is rising in popularity. He has nothing against 
him but the suspicion of republican principles. I think 
he will one day be of the ministry. The Count dc 
Vergennes is ill. The possibility of his recovery, 
renders it dangerous for us to express a doubt of it; 
but he is in danger. He is a great minister in Euro- 
pean affairs, but has very imperfect ideas of our insti- 
tutions, and no confidence in them. His devotion to 
the principles of pure despotism, renders him unaffec- 
tionate to our governments. But his fear of England 
makes him value us as a make-weight. He is cool, 
reserved in political conversations, but free and famil- 
iar on other subjects, and a very attentive, agreeable 
person to do business with. It is impossible to have 
a clearer or better organized head; but age has chilled 
his heart." " The Count de Vergennes," he remarks, 
in another place, "had the reputation, with the diplo- 
matick corps, of being wary and slippery in his diplo- 
matick intercourse: and he might be, with those whom 
he knew to be slippery and double-faced themselves. 
As he saw that I had no indirect views, practised no 
subtleties, meddled in no intrigues, pursued no con- 
cealed object, 1 found him as frank, as honourable, as 
easy of access to reason, as any man with whom I had 
ever done business; and I must say the same of his 
sucessor, Montmorin, one of the most honest and 
worthy of human beings." 

" It is a tremendous cloud, indeed, which hovers 
over this nation, and he at the helm (Neckcr) has 
neither the courage nor skill necessary to weather it. 
Eloquence in a high degree, knowledge in matters of 



160 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

account and order, are distinguishing traits in his 
character. Ambition is his first passion, virtue his 
second. He has not discovered that sublime truth, 
that a bold, unequivocal virtue is the best handmaid 
even to ambition, and would carry him farther, in the 
end, than the temporizing, wavering policy he pursues. 
His judgement is not of the first order, scarcely even 
of the second ; his resolution frail ; and upon the 
whole, it is rare to meet an instance of a person so 
much below the reputation he has obtained." 

" The King (Louis XVI.) loves business, economy, 
order, and justice, and wishes sincerely the good of 
his people ; but he is irascible, rude, very limited in 
his understanding, and religious, bordering on bigotry. 
He has no mistress, loves his Glueen, and is too much 
governed by her." 

Mr. Jefferson's opinion of Maria Antoinette, the un- 
fortunate Queen of France, is thought to have been 
harsh and exaggerated, and not made with a due al- 
lowance for the peculiarity of her situation. " Her 
political opinions, conduct, and influence," it is said, 
"are not, perhaps, exaggerated, and to them, unfortu- 
nately, are to be attributed, with too much justice, the 
rapid, unimpeded, and, to herself, most lamentable 
course of events, which a spirit less obdurate might 
have restrained, or turned to unmingled good. But 
there were traits of virtuous and lofty firmness, as well 
as of tenderness and affection in her character, "which 
were more fully displayed in later scenes of her life, 
and which are confirmed in all the relations since 
given to the world by those who saw her intimately 
and familiarly, that do not seem altogethej compatible 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 161 

with the picture presented by Mr. Jefferson. And it 
should not be forgotten, that at the time of his residence 
in France, the party opposed to Austria, which had 
arisen under the administration ofChoiseu!, and which 
had become more strong in that opposition from its 
connexion with Frederick and with Prussia, comprised 
the great proportion of the men of letters, and many of 
the patriotick leaders, with whom the most agreeable 
and natural associations of Mr. Jefferson were formed." 
But Mr. Jefferson's opinion, it must also be recollected, 
is that of a cool, calm, and temperate observer, unpre- 
judiced by passion, and uninfluenced by interest, and 
of one whose faith was not often pinned upon the un- 
supported assertions of others. As such, we give it to 
the reader: 

•' Louis XVI. had a Q,ueen of absolute sway over 
his weak mind, and timid virtue, and of a character 
the reverse of his in all points. This angel, as gaudily 
painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smart- 
ness of fuincy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdain- 
ful of restraint, indii^imnt at all obstacles to her will, 
eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to 
hold to her desires or perish in the wreck. Her in- 
ordinate gambling and dissipations, with those of the 
Count d'Artois, and others of her clique^ had been a 
sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which 
called into action the reforming hand of the nation j 
and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness, 
and dauniless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, drew 
the King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes 
and calamities which will for ever stain the pages of 
modern history. I have ever believed, that had there 
15 



162 tlFE OF JEFFERSOJf. 

been no Clueen, there would have been no revdlution^ 
No force would have been provoked, nor exercised. 
The King would have gone hand in hand with the 
wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by 
the increased lights of the age, wished only, with the 
same pace, to advance the principles of their social 
constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course 
of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve nor con- 
demn. I am not prepared to say, that the first magis- 
trate of a nation cannot commit treason against his 
country, or is unamenable to its punishment : nor yet, 
that there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, 
there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our 
hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining 
right, and redressing wrong. Of those who judged the 
King, many thought him wilfully criminal : many that 
his existence would keep the nation in perpetual con- 
flict with the horde of Kings, who \vould war against 
a regeneration which might come home to themselves, 
and that it were better that one should die than all. I 
should not have voted with this portion of the legisla- 
ture. I should have shut up the Glueen in a convent, 
putting harm out of her power, and placed the King in 
his station, investing him with limited powers, which, 
I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, 
according to the mec/^ure of his understanding. In 
this way, no void would have been created, courting the 
usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given 
for those enormities which demoralized the nations of 
the world, and destroyed, and is yet to destroy, millions 
and millions of its inhabitants. There are three epochs 
in history, signalized by the total extinction of national 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 163 

morality. The first was of the successors of Alexander, 
not omitting himself: the next, the successors of the 
first Cossar : the third, our own age. 'Ihis was beoun 
by the partition of Poland, followed by the treaty of 
Pilnitz ; next the conflagration of Copenhagen : then 
the enormities of Bonaparte, partitioning the earth at 
his will, and devastating it with fire and sword; now 
the conspiracy of Kings, the successors of Bonaparte, 
blasphemously calling themselves the Holy Alliance, 
and treading in the footsteps of their incarcerated lead- 
er ; not yet, indeed, usurping the government of other 
nations, avowedly and in detail, but controlling by their 
armies the forms in which they Vvull permit them to be 
governed : and reserving in petto the order and extent 
of the usurpations further meditated." 

Thus regarding the situation and governments of 
Europe, it may be well supposed that he formed no 
very advantageous opinion of the political condition of 
the old world, and that he looked upon the general fate 
of humanity there, as truly deplorable in comparison 
with that of his own more foitunate country. " He 
saw all around him the truth of Voltaire's observation, 
that every man must be either the hammer or the an- 
vil. The great mass of the people were suffering under 
physical and moral oppression, while those whom for- 
tune had placed in a loftier sphere, sought in the con- 
stant restlessness and tumult of ambition, dissipation, 
pomp, vanity, and unceasing intrigues of politicks and 
love, that excitement which formed a poor substitute 
for higher aims and more lasting pleasures. In litera- 
ture and science, indeed, the learned, the witty, and the 
eloquent men who will ever make that age remarkable, 



164 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

left far behind them the few scholars of the infant re- 
publicks; but this was more than compensated by the 
wide diffasion of general knoAvledge through the whole 
mass in one community, while in the other, all but a 
small and favoured circle were immersed in deep and 
general ignorance." 

Of fashionable life in Paris, we have his own pleasant 
and playful account, in his letter of February 7, 1787» 
to Mrs. Bingham : " I know, madam, that the twelve- 
month is not yet expired, but it will be, nearly, before 
this will have the honour of being put into your hands. 
You are then engaged to tell me, truly and honestly^ 
whether you do not find the tranquil pleasures of 
America preferable to the empty bustle of Paris. For 
to what do.^s that bustle tend? At eleven o'clock, it is 
day, chez madame. The curtains are drawn. Propped 
on bolsters and pillows, and her head scratched into a 
little order, the bulletins of the sick are read, and the 
billets of the well. She writes to some of her acquaint- 
ance, and receives the visits of others. If the morning 
is not very thronged, she is able to get out and hobble- 
round the cage of the Palais Royal; but she must, 
hobble quickly, for the coiffeur's turn is come — and a 
tremendous turn it is ! Happy, if he does not make her 
arrive when dinner is half over I The torpitude of 
digestion a little passed, she flutters half an hour through 
the streets, by way of paying visits, and then to the 
spectacles. These finished, another half hour is devoted 
to dodging in and out of the doors of her very sincere 
friends, and away to supper. After supper, cards; and 
after cards, bed ; to rise at noon the next day, and ta 
treadi like a mill-horse, the same trodden circle again* 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 1G5 

Thus the days of life are consumed, one by one, without 
an object beyond the present moment ; ever flying from 
the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us: eternally in 
pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally belcrci us. 
If,death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the 
circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is 
completely forgotten by the next morning. In America, 
on the other hand, the society of your husband, the fond 
cares for the children, the arrangements for the house, 
ihe improvprn^ents of the grounds, fill every Ynoment 
with a healthy and an useful activity. Every exertion 
is encouraging, because to present amusement it joins 
the promise of some future good. The intervals of 
leisure are filled b}.^ the society of real friends, whose 
affections are not thinned to cobv\^eb, by being spread 
over a thousand objects. This is the picture, in the 
light it is presented to my mind ; now let me have it 
in yours." 

Yet, as has been truly remarked, Mr. Jefferson Avas 
not insensible to those traits in the character of the 
French, which have thrown a charm over their naLon 
— its manners, its society, its institutions, and its peo- 
ple ; which have lor^g made its cities the resort alike 
of those who seek for amusement or for wisdom ; 
which have placed it first in the scale of refinement, 
if not of intellect; winch have given to its exploits all 
the brilliant tints of gallantry and romance; which 
have made it the chosen abode, in modern times, of 
taste, of science, and }f art ; and imparted to'the luxu- 
ries of life, that elegance and zest, which, if to be de- 
eired, are yet unattained by the other nations of the 
world. Though the low and sullen murmurs of the 
15 



i6& LIFE OF JEFFERSOK. 

approaching storm were heard while he yet remained 
there, the bursting of the tempest aa^bs delayed — the 
steps of palaces were still trodden by gallant nobles» 
who, in personal intercourse, seemed to forget the pride 
ofplace and of birth, in the suavity and kindness of their 
manners — the gilded drawing rooms, the glittering 
theatres, the gardens cooled by fountains and adorned 
by statues, were still frequented by women, whose 
beauty and wit might seem to claim ^ome pardon for 
their intrigues and crimes, and some hopes that they 
might escape impending desolation — the bureaux were 
still filled by statesmen, who so tempered and arranged 
the details of diplomatick intercourse, so displayed, 
when occasion offered, a candid and even a generous 
spirit, that those at least who were removed from the 
sphere of their designs, might look with less distrust 
or anxiety on vast schemes of political ambition, which 
were meant to embrace all the destinies of the age — 
the institutions of learning were still occupied by that 
large and singular body of literary triflers, w'hose spec- 
ulations and researches are now seldom extricated from 
the long scries of volumes which contain their labours 
and their dreams, but whose conversation varied and 
amused the society when it was eagerly welcomed 
and widely diffused. 

From these scenes Mr. Jefferson did not part with- 
out regret: on these scenes he often looked back in the 
subsequent and different portion of his earthly journey ; 
and to them he referred not long before its termination, 
in language which betrays an impression vividh' made, 
and still uneffaced. "I cannot leave this grea| and 
good country," he says, after speaking of his residence 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 167 

in France, •' without expressing my sense of its preemi- 
nence of character, among the nations of the earth. A 
more benevolent people I have never known, nor greater 
warmth and devotedness in their select friendships. — 
Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is un- 
paralleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond any 
thing I had conceived to be practicable in a large city. 
Their eminence, too, in science, the corrimunicative 
dispositions of their scientifick men, the politeness of 
the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their 
conversation, give a charm to their society to be found 
no where else. In a comparison of this with ether 
countries, we have the proof of primacy, which was 
given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. — ■ 
Every general voted to himself the first reward of va- 
lour, and the second to Themistocles. So, ask the trav- 
elled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on 
earth would you rather live? Certainly, in my own, 
where are all my friends, my relations, and the earli- 
est and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. 
Which w^ould be your second choice? France." 

As Mr. Jefferson was absent from America both 
during the session of the convention which formed the 
constitution, and while that act was under discussion 
in the several states, he had no opportunity to take 
part in its formation. The want of a general govern- 
ment had been severely felt, and the difficulties of the 
country were greatly increased, by the failure of treaties 
abroad, which might have given a system to our for- 
eign relations, that could scarcely be cxpecte\ while 
the states presented a social form so feebly connected ; 
the federal constitution, therefore, had been framed 



168 LIFE OF JEFFERSON* 

from a general conviction of its necessity. No on© 
rejoiced more than Mr. Jefferson at the formation of 
the new coriStitution, and its ratification by the states. 
Of the great mass of it, also, he entirely approved: 
the consolidation of the government ; the organization 
in their branches ; the subdivision of the legislative 
branch : the happy compromise of interests between 
the large and small states, by the different manner of 
voting in the two houses : the voting by persons in- 
stead of states ; the qualified negative on the laws givr 
en to the Executive: and the direct power of taxation. 
There were points, hovrever, to which he had objec- 
tions, some less strong and some insuperable. But it 
is proper that the objections of so profound and popu- 
lar a statesman as Mr. Jefferson, and to so important 
an instrum.ent, should be given in detail. In a letter to 
Mr. Mr.dison, dated Paris, December 20, 1787, he thus 
writes: '* I like much the general idea of framing a 
government, which should go on of itself, peaceably, 
without ne^iding continual recurrence to the state leg- 
islatures. I like the organization of the government 
into legislative, judiciary, and executive. I like the 
power given the legislature to levy taxes, and for that 
reason solely, I approve of the greater house being 
chosen by the people directly. For though I think a 
house, so chosen, will be very far infcriour to the pre- 
Bent Congress, it will be very illy qualified to legislate 
for the Union, for foreign nations, &c. : yet this evil does 
not weigh against the good of preserving inviolate the 
fundamental principle, that the people are not to be 
taxed but by representatives chosen imimediately by 
ihejtnselves. I am captivated by the compromise of the 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 169 

opposite claims of the great and little states, of the 
latter to equal, and the former to proportional infiutnce. 
I am much pleased, too, with, the substitution of the 
method of voting by persons, instead of that of voting 
by states- and 1 like the negative given to the Execu- 
tive, conjointly Avith a third of either house; though 
I should have liked it better, had the judiciary beea 
associated for that purpose, or invested separately with 
a similar power. There are other good things of less 
moment. 

" I will now tell you what I do not like. First, the 
omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly, and 
■without the aid of sophism, for freedom of religion, 
freedom of the prese |:rotcction against standing ar- 
mies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unre-^ 
mitting force of the habeas corpus law s, and trials by 
jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the 
land, and not by the laws of nations. To say, as Mr, 
Wilson docs, that a bill of rights was not necessary, 
because all is reserved in the care of the geneial gov- 
ernment which is not given, while in the [articular 
ones, a 1 is given which is not rtseivcd, n:i£^Lt co for 
the audience to which it was addressed : but it is sure- 
ly a gratis dictum, the reverse of which might just as 
well be said : and it is opposed by strong inferences 
from the body of the instrument, as well as from the 
omission of the clause of our present Confederation, 
which had made the reservation in express terms. It 
was hard to conclude, because there has been a want 
of uniformity among the states as to the cases triable 
by jury, because some have been so incautious as to. 
dispense with this mode of trial in certain cases, there-^ 



170 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

fore the more prudent states shall be reduced to the 
same level of calamity. It would have been much 
more just and wise to have concluded the other way, 
that as most of the states had preserved with jealousy 
this sacr.-d palladium of liberty, those Avho had wan- 
dered should be brought back to it : and to have estab- 
lished general right rather than general wrong. For 
I consider all the ill as established, which may be es- 
tablished. I have a right to nothing, which another 
has a right to take away : and Congress will have a 
right to take away trials by jury in all civil cases. — 
Let me add, that a bill of rights is Vvhat the people are 
entitled to against every government on earth, general 
or particular; and what no just government should re- 
fuse, or rest on inference. 

"The second feature I dislike, and strongly dislike, 
is the abandonment, in every instance, of the principle 
of potation in office, and most particularly in the case of 
the President. Reason and experience tell us, that the 
first magistrate will always be re-elected, if he may be 
re-elected. He is then an officer for life. This once 
observed, it becomes of so much consequence to certain 
nations, to have a friend or a foe at the head of our 
affairs, that they w^ill interfere with money and with 
arms. A Galloman, or an Angloman, will be supported 
by the nation he befriends. If once elected, and at a 
Second or third election outvoted by one or two votes, 
he will pretend false votes, foul play, hold possession 
of the reins of government, be supported by the states 
▼oting for him, especially if they be the central ones, 
lying in a compact body by themselves, and separating 
their opponents ; and they will be aided by one nation 



LIFE OF JEFFERSO^f. 171 

in Europe, while the majority are aided by another^ 
The election of a President of America, some years 
henr.e, will be much more interesting to certain nations 
of Europe than ever the election of a King of Poland 
was. Reflect on all the instances in history, ancient and 
modern, of elective monarchies, and say, if they do not 
give foundation for my fears : the Roman Emperours, 
the Popes while they were of any importance, the Ger- 
man Emperours till they became hereditary in practice, 
the Kings of Poland, the Deys of the Ottoman depen- 
dencies. It may be said, that if elections are. to be 
attended with these disorders, the less frequently they 
are repeated, the better. But experience says, that to 
free tham from disorder, they must be rendered less 
interesting by a necessity of change. No foreign 
power, nor domestick party, will waste their blood and 
money to elect a person who must go out at the end of 
a short period. The power of removing every fourth 
year by the vote of the people, is a power which they 
will not exercise, and if they were disposed to exercise 
it, they would not be permitted. The King of Poland 
is removable every day by the Diet, but they never 
remove him : nor would Russia, the Emperour, &c. 
permit them to do it. Smaller objections are, the appeals 
on matter of fact as well as law ; and the binding all 
persons, legislative, executive, and judiciary, by oath, 
to maintain the constitution. I do not pretend to decide 
what would be the best method of procuring the estab- 
lishment of the manifold good things in this constitu- 
tion, and of getting rid of the bad. Whether by adopt- 
ing it, in hopes of future amendment, or after it shall' 
have been duly weighed and canvassed by the people, 



17^ LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

^fter seeing the parts they generally dislike, and those 
they generally approve, to say to them, ' We see now 
^vhat you wish : you are willing to give up to your 
federal government such and such powers : but you 
wish, at the same time, to have such and such funda- 
mental rights secured to you, and certain sources of 
convulsion taken away. Be it so. Send together your 
deputies again. Let them establish your fundamental 
rights by a sacrosanct declaration, and let them pass 
the parts of the constitution you have approved. These 
will give powers to your federal government sufficient 
for your happiness.' 

" This is what might be said, and would probably 
produce a speedy, more perfect, and more permanent 
form of government. At all events, 1 hope, you will 
not be discouraged from making other trials, if the 
present one should fail. We are never permitted to 
despair of the commonwealth. 1 have thus told you 
freely what I like, and what I dislike, merely a^ a mat- 
ter of curiosity : for I know it is not in my power to 
offer matter of information to your jtidgeraent, which 
has been formed after hearing and weighing every 
thing which the wisdom of man could offer on these 
subjects. I own, I am not a friend to a very energetick 
government. It is always oppressive. It places the 
Governours, indeed, more at their ease, at the expense 
of the people. The late rebellion in Massachusetts has 
given more alarm than I think it should have done. 
Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen states in the 
course of eleven years, is but one for each state in a 
century and a half No country should be so long 
without one. Nor will any degree of power in the 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 173 

hands of government prevent insurrections. In Eng- 
land, where the hand of power is heavier than with 
us, there are seldom half a dozen years without an 
insurrection. In France, where it is still heavier, but 
less despotick, as Montesquieu supposes, than in some 
other countries, and where there are always two or three 
hundred thousand men ready to crush insurrections, 
there have been three in the course of the three years 
I have been here, in every one of which greater num- 
bers were engaged than in Massachusetts, and a great 
deal more blood was spilt. In Turkey, Avhere the sole 
nod of the despot is death, insurrections are the events 
of every day. Compare again the ferocious depreda- 
tions of their insurgents with the order, the moderation, 
and the almost self-extinguishment of ours. And say, 
finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving 
energy to the government, or information to the people. 
This last is the most certain and the most legitimate 
engine of government. Educate and inform the whole 
mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their 
interest to preserve peace and order, and they will 
preserve them. And it requires no ver}'- high degree 
of education to convince them of this. They are the 
only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. 
After all, it is my principle that the will of the majority 
should prevail. If they approve the proposed consti- 
tution in all its parts, I shall concur in it cheerfully, in 
hopes they will amend it, whenever they shall find that 
it works wrong. This reliance cannot deceive us, as 
long as we remain virtuous ; and I think we shall be 
60, as long as agriculture is our principal object, which 
will be the case while there remain vacant lands in 
16 



1T4 LirS OP JEFFERSON. 

any part of America. When we get piled upon one 
another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall beconie 
corrupt, as in Europe, and go to eating one another as 
they do there." 

In another letter, to the same distinguished person- 
age, dated July 31, 1788, he remarks: " I sincerely 
rejoice at the acceptance of our new constitution by 
nine states. It is a good canvass, on which some strokes 
only want retouching. What these are, I think are 
sufficiently manifested by the general voice from north 
to south, which calls for a bill of rights. It seems 
pretty generally understood, that this should go to 
juries, habeas corpus, standing armies, printing, reli- 
gion, and monopolies. I conceive there may be diffi- 
culty in finding general modifications of these, suited 
to the habits of all the states. But if such cannot be 
found, then it is better to establish trials by jury, the 
right of habeas corpus, freedom of the press, and free- 
dom of religion, in all cases, and to abolish standing 
armies in time of peace, and monopolies in all cases, 
than not to do it in any. The few cases wherein these 
things may do evil, cannot be weighed against the 
multitude^ wherein the want of them will do evil. In 
disputes between a foreigner and a nation, a trial by 
jury may be improper. But if this exception cannot 
be agreed to, the remedy will be to model the jury, by 
giving the medietas linguce in civil as well as crim- 
inal cases. Why suspend the habeas corpus in insur- 
rections and rebellions ? The parties who may be 
arrested, may be charged instantly with a well-defined 
crime ; of course, the judge will remand them. If the 
publick safety requires that the government should 



LIFE OP JEFFERSON. 175 

have a man imprisoned on less probable testimony in 
those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and 
tried, re-taken and re -tried, while the necessity con- 
tinues, only giving him redress against the government 
for damages. Examine the history of England. See 
how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas 
corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. .They 
have been either real treason, wherein the parties 
might as well have been charged at once, or sham 
plots, where it was shameful they should eves have 
been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the 
suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, 
that operation is now become habitual, and the minds 
of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant 
suspension. A declaration, that the federal government 
will never restrain the presses from printing any thing 
they please, will not take away the liability of the 
printers for false facts printed. The declaration, that 
religious faith shall be unpunished, does not give im- 
punity to criminal acts dictated by religious errour. 
The saying there shall be no monopolies, lessens the 
incitements to ingenuity, which is spurred on by the 
hope of a monopoly for a limited time, as of fourteen 
years; but the benefit of even limited monopolies is too 
doubtful to be opposed to that of their general suppres- 
sion. If no check can be found to keep the number of 
standing troops within safe bounds, while they are 
tolerated as far as necessary, abandon them altogether, 
discipline well the militia, and guard the magazines 
with them. More than magazine guards will be use- 
less, if few ; and dangerous, if many. No European 
nation can ever send against us such a regular army 



176 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

as we need fear, and it is hard, if our militia are not 
equal to those of Canada or Florida. My idea, then, 
is, that though proper exceptions to these general rules 
are desirable, and probably practicable, yet if the ex- 
ceptions cannot be agreed on, the estabhshment of the 
rules, in all cases, will do ill in very few. I hope, 
therefore, a bill of rights will be formed, to guard the 
people against the federal government, as they are 
already guarded against their state governments, in 
most instances. The abandoning the principle of ne- 
cessary rotation in the Senate, has, I see, been disap- 
proved by many : in the case of the President, by none. 
I readily, therefore, suppose my opinion wrong, when 
opposed by the majority, as in the former instance, and 
the totality, as in the latter. In this, however, I should 
have done it with more complete satisfaction, had we 
all judged from the same position." 

Many of these objections of Mr. Jefferson were 
afterwards obviated, by amendments to the constitu- 
tion. It was deemed best to leave the right of habeas 
corpus to the discretion of Congress : and the question 
of the re-eligibility of the President, though not prc» 
posed or acted on formally, has received from the ex- 
ample of the officers in that high station, and the pro- 
gress of publick opinion, a decision, which may be al- 
most considered as an established principle, any de- 
viation from which would probably be opposed as a 
demonstration of ambitious views. 

There was another amendment, however, not made 
or apparently thought of at the time, the omission of 
which Mr. Jefferson deemed of fatal consequence, as 
leaving uncrushed the germe that was to destroy th© 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 177 

wise combination of national powers. The evil he so 
much' feared, was the entire irresponsibility of the 
judg-es, and their independence of the nation. He thus 
refers to this subject in his memoirs : " But there was 
another amendment, of which none of us thought at the 
time, and in the omission of which, lurks the germe 
that is to destroy this happy combination of national 
powers, in the general government, for matters of na- 
tional concern, and independent powers in the states, 
for what concerns the states severally. In England, it 
was a great point gained at the revolution, that the 
commissions 6f the judges, which had hitherto been 
during pleasure, should thenceforth be made during 
good behaviour. A judiciary, dependent on the will of 
the King, had proved itself the most oppressive of all 
tools in the hand of that magistrate. Nothing, then, 
could be more salutary, than a change there, to the 
tenour of good behaviour ; and the question of good 
behaviour, left to the vote of a simple majority in the 
two houses of Parliament. Before the revolution, we 
were all good English whigs, cordial in their free 
principles, and in their jealousies of their Executive 
magistrate. These jealousies are very apparent, in all 
our state constitutions; and, in the general govern- 
ment in this instance, we have gone even beyond the 
English caution, by requiring a vote of two thirds in 
one of the houses, for removing a judge : a vot^ so 
impossible, where any defence is made, before men of 
ordinary prejudices and passions, that our judges are 
effectually independent of the nation. But this ought 
not to be. I would not, indeed, make them dependent 
on the Executive authority, as they formerly were in 
16* 



ITS LIFE OF JEFFERSOBT, 

England ; but I deem it indispensable to the continit- 
ance of this government, that they should be submit- 
ted to some practical and impartial control ; and that 
this, to be impartial, must be compounded of a mixtur© 
of state and federal authorities. It is not enough, that 
honest men are appointed judges. All know the influ- 
ence of interest on the mind of man, and how uncon- 
sciously his judgement is warped by that influence. — 
To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their pe- 
culiar maxim and creed, ' that it is the office of a good 
judge to enlarge his jurisdiction,' and the absence of 
responsibility ; and how can we expect impartial de- 
cision between the general government, of which they 
are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual 
state, from which they have nothing to hope or fear ? 
We have seen, too, that, contrary to all correct exam- 
ple, they are in the habit of going out of the question 
before them, ta throw an anchor ahead, and grapple 
further hold for future advances of power. They are 
then, in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, steadily 
working to undermine the independent rights of the 
states, and to consolidate all power in the hands of that 
government, in which they have so important a freehold 
estate. But it is not by the consolidation or concentra- 
tion of powers, but by their distribution, that good gov- 
ernment is effected. Were not this great country al- 
ready divided into states, the division must be made, 
that each might do for itself what concerns itself di- 
rectly, and what it can so much better do than a dis- 
tant authority. Every state again is divided into coun- 
ties, each to take care of what lies within its local 
bounds; each county again into townships or wards. 



LIFE OF JEFfERSOlf. 17^ 

to manage minuter details ; and every ward into farms, 
to be governed each by its individual proprietor. — ■ 
Were we directed from Washington when to sow and 
when to reap, we should soon want bread. It is by 
this partition of cares, descending in gradation from 
general to particular, that the mass of human affairs 
may be best managed, for the good and prosperity of all 
I repeat, that I do not charge the judges with wilful 
and ill-intentioned errour ; but honest errour must be 
arrested, where its toleration leads to publick ruin, — 
As, for the safety of society, we commit honest mani* 
acks to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from 
their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to 
dissolution. It may, indeed, injure them in fame or in 
fortune ; but it saves the republick, which is the first 
and supreme law." 

Neither, while abroad, was Mr. Jefferson a little 
efficient in redeeming the credit of his government. — 
•' Among the debilities of the government of the Con- 
federation," says he, " no one was more distinguished or 
more distressing, than the utter impossibility of obtain- 
ing from the states, the moneys necessary for the pay- 
ment of debts, or even for the ordinary expenses of 
the government. Some contributed a little, some less, 
and some nothing; and the last, furnished at length an 
excuse for the first, to do nothing also. Mr. Adams, 
while residing at the Hague, had a general authority to 
borrow what sums might be requisite for ordinary and 
necessary expenses. Interest on the publick debt, and 
the maintenance of the diplomatick establishment in 
Europe, had been habitually provided in this way. — 
He was now elected Vice Piesident of the United 



ISO LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

States, was soon to return to America, and had referrtd 
our bankers to me for future counsel, on our affairs in 
their hands. But I had no powers, no instructions, 
no means, and no familiarity with the subject. It had 
always been exclusively under his management, except 
as to occasional and partial deposites in the hands of 
Mr. Grand, banker in Paris, for special and local pur- 
poses. These last had been exhausted for some time, 
and I had fervently pressed the Treasury Board to 
replenish this particular deposite, as Mr. Grand now 
refused to make further advances. They answered 
candidly, that no funds could be obtained until the new 
government should get into action, and have time to 
make its arrangements. Mr. Adams had received his 
appointment to the court of London, while engaged at 
Paris with Dr. Franklin and myself, in the negotia- 
tions under our joint commissions. He had repaired 
thence to London, without returning to the Hague, to 
take leave of that government. He thought it neces- 
sary, however, to do so now, before he should leave 
Europe, and accordingly went there. 1 learned his 
departure from London, by a letter from Mrs. Adams, 
received on the very day on which he would arrive at 
the Hague. A consultation with him, and some pro- 
vision for the future, was indispensable, while we 
eould yet avail ourselves of his powers ; for when 
tliey would be gone, we should be without resource. 
I was daily dunned by a company who had formerly 
made a small loan to the United States, the principal 
of which w^as now become due ; and our bankers in 
Amsterdam had notified me, that the interest on our 
general debt would be expected in June; that if yr« 



LifE OF JEFFERSON. 181 

failed to pay it, it would be deemed an act of bank- 
ruptcy, and would effectually destroy the credit of the 
United States, and all future prospects of obtaining- 
money there ; that the loan they had been authorized 
to open, of which a third only was filled, had now ceased 
to get forward, and rendered desperate that hope of 
resource. I saw that there was not a moment to lose, 
and set out for the Hague on the second morning after 
receiving the information of Mr. Adams' journey. I 
went the direct road by Louvres, Senlis, Roye, Pont 
St. Maxence, Bois le Due, Gournay, Peronne, Cambray, 
Bouchain, Valenciennes, Mons, Bruxelles, Malines, 
Antwerp, Mordick, and Rotterdam, to the Hague, 
where I happily found Mr. Adams. He concurred 
with me at once in opinion, that something must be 
done, and that we ought to risk ourselves on doing it, 
without waiting for instructions, to save the credit of 
the United States. We foresaw, that before the new- 
government could be adopted, assembled, establish its 
financial system, get the money into the treasury, and 
place it in Europe, considerable time would elapse ; 
that, therefore, we had better provide at once for the 
years '88, '89 and '90, in order to place our govern- 
ment at its ease, and our credit in security, during that 
trying" interval. We set out, therefore, by the way 
of Leyden for Amsterdam, where we arrived on the 
10th. Mr. Adams executed 1,000 bonds, for 1,000 
florins each, and deposited them in the hands of our 
bankers, with instructions, however, not to issue them 
until Congress should ratify the measure. This done, 
he returned to London, and 1 set out for Paris." 



18^ IIFB OF JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The remaining portion of Mr. Jefferson's publick 
life, is embraced in a period of nineteen years, during 
whi«h iie held successively, in the government of his 
own country, the high and honourable offices of Secre- 
tary of State, Vice President, and President of the Uni- 
ted States. The history of this is so familiar, and, indeed, 
so many now living have been eye witnesses of its 
events, that it is unnecessary, and would be far too 
prolix, to pursue the narrative of them in regular de- 
tail ; and neither could this be done without writing 
the history of the United States for a certain period. 
It would, therefore, come within our prescribed limits, 
and be more agreeable to the reader, when we select 
such prominent topicks as are connected with the sub- 
ject of these memoirs, and more likely to excite a gen- 
eral interest. 

The national legislature, under the new system of 
government, convened at New York on the fourth day 
of March, 1789, and consisted of senators and repre- 
sentatives from eleven states. A quorum of both 
houses did not attend until the sixth of April, w^hen, on 
counting the electoral votes, it appeared that George 
Washington was unanimously chosen President, aad 
that John Adama was elected Vice President. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. iSS 

Whatever difference of opinion existed among the 
|>eople of the United States with respect to the govern- 
ment itself, there was none as to the person who, as 
their first chief magistrate, was to be selected to ad- 
minister it. All eyes, from the beginning, were turned 
to General Washington, as the first- President ; and he 
received what perhaps no individual, in so high a sta- 
tion, in any age, ever before received, the unanimous 
and voluntary suflTrages of a whole nation. 

Informed of his election by a special message, the 
President immediately left his beloved retreat, and set 
out for the seat of government. He was received on 
his way by the sincere congratulations of numerous 
publick bodies as well as individuals. 

He was met at Elizabethtown by a committee from 
both houses of Congress, and escorted into the city of 
New York amidst the acclamations of thousands. 

On the 30th of April, the oath of office was admin- 
istered to him by the Chancellor of the state of New 
York, in the gallery in front of the Senate chamber, 
in the presence of the members of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, and a vast concourse of citizens ; 
and he w^as proclaimed President of the United States. 
Every countenance beamed with inexpressible joy at 
the sight of the venerated chief, to whom, under God, 
they were so much indebted, not only for their inde- 
pendence, but that form of government, in the admin- 
istration of which he had consented to take a share, 
and Avhich he had in 'their presence solemnly sworn 
to support. 

Shortly after this impressive investment, Mr. Jeffer- 
son returned to the United States, having, for this pur- 



184 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

pose, obtained leave of absence for a short time. In 
filling the executive offices, the President had, with 
that wisdom which marked all the acts of his publick 
life, carefully selected those whose talents or previous 
employments rendered them peculiarly fit for the du- 
ties of the stations to which they Avere appointed. Mr. 
Jefl^erson landed on November 23d at Norfolk, and 
whilst on his way home, received a letter from Presi- 
dent Washington, covering the appointment of Secre- 
tary of State, under the new constitution, which was just 
commencing its operations. To this the following re- 
ply was returned : " I have received, at this place, 
(Chesterfield,) the honour of your letters of October 
the 13th and November 30th, and am tmly flattered 
by your nomination of me to the very dignified office 
of Secretary of State ] for which permit me here to 
return you my humble thanks. Could any circum- 
stances seduce me to overlook the disproportion be- 
tween its duties and my talents, it would be the en- 
couragement of your choice. But when I contem- 
plate the extent of that office, embracing as it does the 
principal mass of domestick administration, together 
with the foreign, I cannot be insensible of my ine- 
quality to it ; and I should enter on it with gloomy 
forebodings from the criticisms and censures of a pub- 
lick, just, indeed, in their intentions, but sometimes 
misinformed and misled, and always too respectable 
t® be neglected. I cannot but foresee the possibility 
that this may end disagreeably for me, whoj having no 
motive to publick service but the publick satisfaction, 
would certainly retire the moment that satisfaction 
should appear to languish. On the other hand, I feel 



LIJ-E 0^ JEFFERSON. 185 

^ degree oif familiarity with the duties of my present 
office, as far, at least, as I am capable of understanding^ 
its duties. The ground I have already passed over, 
enables me to see my way into that which is before me. 
The change of government, too, taking place in the 
country where it is exercised, seems to open a possi- 
bility of procuring iVom the new rulers some new ad- 
vantages in commerce, which may be agreeable to our 
countrymen. So that, as far as my fears, my hopes, 
or my inclination m.ight enter into this question, I 
confess they would not leave me to prefer a change. 
But it is not for an individual to choose his post. You 
are to marshal us as may best be for the publick good; 
and it is only in the case of its being indijETerent to 
you, that I would avail myself of the option you have 
so kindly offered in your letter. If you think it better 
to transfer me to another post, my inclination must be 
Ko obstacle ; nor shall it be, if there is any desire to 
suppress the office I now hold, or to reduce its grade. 
In either of these cases, be so good only as to signify 
to me by another line your ultimate wish, and I shall 
conform to it cordially. If it should be to remain at 
New York, my chief comfort will be to work under 
your eye, my only shelter the authority of your name, 
and the wisdom of measures to be dictated by you, and 
implicitly executed by me. Whatever you may be 
pleased to decide, I do not see that the matters which 
have called me hither will permit me to shorten the 
stay I originally asked ; that is to say, to set out on my 
journey northward till the month of March. As early 
as possible in that month, I shall have the honour of 
paying my respects to you in New York." 
17 



186 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

Mr. Jefferson arrived at Monticello on the 23d of 
December, where he received a second letter from the 
President, expressing his continued wish that he should 
take his station with him at New York, but leaving 
him still at liberty to continue in his former office, if 
he could not reconcile himself to that now proposed. 
This silenced all reluctance, and the appointment was 
accepted. He left Monticello on the first of March, 
1790, for New York. At Philadelphia, he called on 
the venerable Dr. Franklin, who was then on that bed 
of sickness from which he never rose. The recent 
return of Mr. Jefferson from a country in which the 
doctor had left so many friends, and the perilous con- 
vulsions to which they had been exposed, revived all 
his anxieties to know what part they had taken, what 
had been their course, and what their fate. He went 
over all in succession, with a rapidity and animation 
almost too much for his strength. A circumstance took 
place during this interview which we cannot avoid re- 
lating. " When all his inquiries," continues Mr. Jef- 
ferson, " were satisfied, and a pause took place, I told 
him I had learned with much pleasure, that since his 
return to America, he had been occupied in preparing 
for the world the history of his own life. ' I cannot 
say much of that,' said he ; ' but I will give you a 
sample of what I shall leave it :' and he directed his 
little grandson, (William Bache,) who was standing 
by the bed side, to hand him a paper from the table, to 
which he pointed. He did so ; and the doctor, putting it 
into my hands, desired me to take it, and read it at my 
leisure. It was about a quire of folio paper, written in 
a large mid running hand, very like his own. I looked 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 187 

into it slightly, then shut it, and said 1 would accept 
his permission to read it, and would carefully return 
it. He said, ' No, keep it.' Not certain of his mean- 
ing, I again looked into it, folded it for my pocket, and 
said again, I would certainly return it. ' No,' said he, 
* keep it.' I put it into my pocket, and, shortly after, 
took leave of him. He died on the 17th of the ensuing 
month of April; and as I understood that he had be- 
queathed all his papers to his grandson, William Tem- 
ple Franklin, I immediately wrote to Mr. Franklin, to 
inform him I possessed this paper, which I should 
consider as his property, and would deliver to his 
order. He came on immediately to New York, and 
called on me for it, and I delivered it to him. As he 
put it into his pocket, he said-^aielessly, he had either 
the original or another cOpy of it, I do not recollect 
which. This last expression struck my attention for- 
cibly, and for the first time suggested to me the thought 
that Dr. Franklin had m'feant it as a confidential depos- 
ite in my hands, and that I had done wrong in parting 
from it. I have not yet seerf the collection he published 
of Dr. Franklin's v/orks, and therefore know not if this 
is among them. I have been told it is not. It contained 
a narrative of the negotiations between Dr. Franklin 
and the British ministry when he was endeavouring 
to prevent the contest of arms which followed. The 
negotiation was brought about by the intervention of 
Lord Howe and his sister, who, I believe, was called 
Lady Howe, but I may misremember her title. Lord 
Howe seems to have been friendly to America, and 
exceedingly anxious to prevent a rupture. His inti- 
macy with Dr. Franklin, and his position with the 



188 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

ministry, induced him to undertake a mediation be- 
tween them, in which his sister seemed to have been 
associated. They carried from one to the other, back- 
wards and forwards, the several propositions and an- 
swers which passed, and seconded with their own 
intercessions, the importance of mutual sacrifices, to 
preserve the peace and connexion of the two countries. 
I remember that Lord North's answers were dry, un- 
yielding, in the spirit of unconditional submission, and 
betrayed an absolute indifference to the occurrences of 
a rupture ; and he said to the mediators distinctly, at 
last, that * a rebellion was not to be deprecated on the 
part of Great Britain : that the confiscations it would 
produce, Vv^ould prqjsride for mau}^ of their friends.' — 
This expression was r^)orted by the mediators to Dr. 
Franklin, and indicated so cool and calculative a pur- 
pose in the ministry, as to render compromise hopeless, 
and the negotiation was discontinued. If this is not 
among the papers published, we ask, what has become 
of it ? I delivered it with my own hands into those of 
Temple Franklin, It certainly established views so 
atrocious in the British government, that its suppres- 
sion would, to them, be worth a great price. But could 
the grandson of Dr. Franklin be, in such degree, an 
accomplice in the parricide of the memory of his im- 
mortal grandfather 1 The suspension, for more than 
twenty years, of the general publication, bequeathed 
and confided to him, produced for a while hard suspi- 
cions against him ; and if, at last, all are not published, 
a part of these suspicions may remain with some." 

Mr. Jefferson arrived at New York on the 21st of~ 
March, where Congress was in session. 



LJPE OF JEFFERSON. ' 189 

Mr. Jefferson was thus placed at the head of the 
department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hamilton at the 
head of the Treasury, and Mr. Knox was made Secre- 
tary of the War Department ; John Jay was appointed 
Chief Justice; John Rutledge, James Wilson, William 
Gushing, Robert H. Harrison, and John Blair, Associ- 
ate Judges of the Supreme Court: and Edmund Ran- 
dolph, Attorney General. Nicholas Eveleigh was ap- 
pointed Comptroller ; Oliver Wolcott, Auditor ; and Jo- 
seph Nourse, Register. 

Gf all the offices under the government of the Uni- 
ted States, says one well qualified to give an opinion, 
there is no one which calls for the exercise of such va- 
rious abilities, such extensive knowledge of laws and 
facts, such prompt decision on questions involving 
principles of the highest political import, as the depart- 
ment of state : and in proportion to the infancy of the 
office itself, and the new and peculiar situation of fhe 
government, was the difficulty of the task assumed by 
Mr. Jefferson. The subsequent events of his political 
life have been tinged by the hue of party, and perhaps 
the time has not arrived when we can view them with 
strict impartiality, and weigh the policy of his meas- 
ures, without dwelling too much on circumstances 
merely temporary or local. But all unite in the can- 
did acknowledgment that the duties of this station 
were performed with a prudence, intelligence, and zeal 
honourable to himself, and useful to his country. In 
the intercourse with foreign nations, the laws of a strict 
neutrality, at a period of peculiar difficulty, were main- 
tained with unyielding firmness and consummate abil- 
ity ; the dignity of the nation was remembered and 
17* 



190 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

supported ; and the interests of the citizens were cher- 
ished and protected. At home, he turned his attention 
to objects of a minuter character, but of equal impor- 
tance ; he laid before Congress, from time to time, re- 
ports on various branches of domestick policy, which 
displayed at once the extent and variety of his genius, 
the depth of his information, and the zeal with which 
he applied them both to the peculiar duties of his situ- 
ation. It has been observed, that these papers evince 
not only the feelings of a patriot, and the judgement of 
an accomplished statesman, but display at the same 
time, uncommon talents and knowledge as a mathe- 
matician and natural philosopher, the deepest research 
as a historian, and an enlarged and intimate acquaint- 
ance with the business and concerns of a merchant. 

The national legislature, during its first session, was 
principally occupied in providing revenues for the long 
exhausted treasury, in establishing a judiciary, in or- 
ganizing the executive departments in detail, and in 
framing amendments to the constitution, agreeably to 
the suggestion of the President. The members imme- 
diately entered upon the exercise of those powers so 
long refused under the old system of general govern- 
ment. They imposed a tunnage duty, as well as du- 
ties on various imported articles. In the exercise of 
these powers, they did not lose sight of the navigating 
interest of their country, which had so long been at the 
mercy of other nations. 

We have always deemed it the peculiar charity of 
Heaven, is the remark of a distinguished writer, that, 
at this time, such a man as George Washington was 
^iven to fill the high and novel station of first magis- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSOH. 191' 

trate of the Union, One of different talents, one less 
endowed v\dth exalted and uncommon qualities, on© 
who was merely respected as a citizen, or known 
merely- as a statesman of routine, in short, one who 
was not venerated as a father, would have brought to 
the first operations of this new and complicated gov- 
ernment, nothing to enforce it beyond its own intrin- 
sick merits. It would have been less impressive and 
efficient : and although republican principles and hab^ 
its would undoubtedly have carried it through, yet it 
would have been coldly, and sometimes reluctantly 
adopted. The slow progress which it would then 
have made, the opposition which, at times, would prob- 
ably have been presented by state administrations, feel- 
ing themselves somewhat shorn of their power, were 
prevented by the overbearing but unassuming influence 
of a name which memory ever found prominent in 
military recollections, and always safe in civil and do- 
mestick action. 

Nor is it at all inconsistent with republicanism, that 
among men all politically equal, publick preference 
should accompany those who are the most meritorious. 
There cannot be an agrarian law of the mind. Tal- 
ent and virtue must ascend, and must acquire the con- 
fidence and trust of the community. But is there no 
danger? May not confidence and trust be carried too 
far ? The answer is found in a written constitution, 
full of checks and balances; and we may confidently 
throw into the scale the moderation and good sense of 
our citizens. Compare this country with all we know 
of other countries — the North American republick 
with every other republick — the petty, rancorous de- 



192 LIFE OF JEFFERSOK-, 

mocracies of ancient Greece — the disjointed, venal 
Romans — the aristocracies of Venice and Genoa, and 
others of modern times — the ephemeral republick of 
France — the southern part of our own continent in 
its present awful convulsions — do w^e not perceive that 
we have a natural character distinct from all of them? 
Here it would be impossible for a Julius Ccesar to ar- 
ray a military force against the liberties of his coun- 
try; it would be unnecessary to expel an Aristides by 
ostracism. We adhere to the letter of the constitution ; 
it is the safest rule. No publick instrument ever was 
so cautiously, so accurately framed. There is in it 
nothing superfluous, nothing defective. The letter is 
itself the spirit of it. 

"Mr. Jefferson had scarcely entered on the duties of 
his office, w^hen Congress referred to him a subject 
whose nature and importance called for the exercise of 
a mature judgement, while its intricacy was such, as 
to require in the investigation more than ordinary sci- 
entifick knowledge. They directed him to prepare 
and report a plan for establishing a uniform system of 
currency, weights and measures. This was a subject, 
admitted on all hands, w-hich demanded very se- 
rious attention. It had already attracted the notice of 
the most enlightened European nations ; and a partial 
experiment in one branch, that of the publick curren- 
cy, had been received throughout the United States 
with general approbation and unexpected success. — 
The established system of weights and measures was 
alike inconvenient and absurd. In the ages of feudal 
ignorance, when the sallies of passion, the dictates of 
unrestrained ambition, or the gratification of each 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 193^ 

changing caprice, were all that a monarch asked as 
the foundation of his laws, it was at least not incon- 
sistent, that the length of his arm or foot should regu- 
late the measures of the nation. But the necessities of" 
modern- commercial intercourse, seem to demand a 
scale more certain and convenient ; while the improve- 
ments of modern science offered standards of unerring 
correctness and uniformity. The first object that pre- 
sents itself in such an inquiry, is the discovery of some 
measure of invariable length. For this purpose, Mr. 
Jefferson proposed to select a pendulum vibrating se- 
conds; and, after answering the various objections 
which may be made to such a standard, he submits to 
Congress two alternative plans for its adoption. By 
the first he proposes, that if, in the opinion of Con- 
gress, the difficulty of changing the established habits 
of the nation, renders it expedient to retain the present 
weights and measures, yet that they should be render- 
ed uniform and invariable, by bringing them to the 
same invariable standard. With this view, he enters 
minutely into the details of the present system, its his- 
tory, the remarkable coincidence to be discovered ia 
some of its varieties, its useless inconsistencies, and 
the extreme ease, and trifling variation, with which it 
may be rendered uniform and stable." 

In the second ahernative he proceeds to say, " If it 
be thought that either now or at any future time, the 
citizens of the United States may be induced to under- 
take a thorough reformation of the whole system of 
measures, weights, and coins, reducing every branch 
to the same decimal ratio already established in their 
coins, and thus bringing the calculation of the princi^.. 



194 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

pal affairs of life within the arithmetick of every man 
who can multiply and divide plain numbers, greater 
changes will be necessary." 

These changes he points out briefly and distinctly, 
as being such as are easy of introduction, and useful 
both to the citizens of our own and foreign countries. 
" A gradual introduction," he concludes, "would lessen 
the inconveniences which might attend too sudden a 
substitution, even of an easier for a more difficult sys- 
tem. After a given term, for instance, it might begin 
in the custom-houses, where the merchants would be- 
come familiarized wi^h it. After a further term, it 
might be introduced into all legal proceedings ; and 
merchants and traders in foreign commodities might 
be required to use it in their dealings with one another. 
After a still further term, all other descriptions of peo- 
ple might receive it, into common use. Too long a 
postponement, on the other hand, would increase the 
difficulties of its reception with the increase of our 
population.'^ 

Notwithstanding this able report of Mr. Jefferson, 
the system recommended by him was not adopted ; and 
there has as yet been no change-in the existing laws. 
But it is to be hoped, that the views of Mr. Jefferson 
will not be lost sight of among his countrymen, and 
that an important improvement will not be relinquished 
from a fear that their habits are so firmly fixed as to 
preclude its introduction. 

" On the 18th of January, 1791, Mr. Jefferson made 
a report, as Secretary of State, on the subject of tun- 
nage duties payable by France. Very soon after the 
meeting of the first Congress, the same subject had 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 195 

been discussed in that body with considerable anima- 
tion, and an act had passed the House of Representa- 
tives, embracing a discrimination in these duties highly- 
favourable to France. The principle thus adopted, co- 
incided with the general sentiments of the nation, and 
appeared to be called for, not by this circumstance only, 
but by the strongest dictates of national gratitude, as 
well as those, of sound policy. This discrimination 
was rejected, however, by the Senate, and the House 
of Representatives were obliged, reluctantly, to yield. 
What it was thus deemed inexpedient to grant, even as 
a matter of favour or policy, the French government 
demanded as a right under the treaty of amity and com- 
merce of 1778. The demand was referred to Mr. Jef- 
ferson, by the President, and elicited from him the able 
report to which we have alluded. In this he clearly 
proved, that the article of the treaty on which the 
French government founded their claim, was evident- 
ly meant to extend no further than to the exemption of 
the United States from a duty from which other favour- 
ed nations were also exempted, and that, in return, 
France could claim of our government no greater ad- 
vantages than favoured nations also received of us. 
That if the article in question had a more extended 
relation, it applied reciprocally to each government, 
and would lead to the mutual abolition of duties 
highly useful to both, and to consequences in which 
it was hardly conceivable that either party could see 
its interest. But he appears to incline to the opin- 
ion, that if France persisted in claiming this ex- 
emption, there were extrinsick causes which might 
justify, and even render advisable, some relaxation 



t-96 LIYE Oir JEFFERSON. 

in her favour ; not on the grounds on which it was 
demanded, but from the effect it would have on the 
finances, revenue, and commerce of our own country. 
This report the President immediately submitted to 
the Senate of the United States. 

To aid in the management of the national finances, 
the Secretary of the Treasury had previously recom- 
mended the establishment of a bank ; and in February, 
179 1, ^.n act passed for that purpose. The preamble 
disclosed the principal reasons for its adoption, declar- 
ing- " that it would be conducive to the successful con- 
ducting of the national finances, give facility to the 
obtaining of loans for the use of the government in 
sudden emergencies," and would also be " productive 
of considerable advantage to trade and industry in 
general." 

The capital stock of the bank was ten millions of 
dollars ; two millions to be subscribed for the benefit of 
the United States, and the residue by individuals. One 
fourth of the sums subscribed by individuals was to be 
paid in gold and silver, and three fourths in the publick 
debt. By the act of incorporation, it was to be a hank 
of discount as well as deposite, and its bills, which 
were payable in gold and silver on demand, were made 
receivable in all payments to the Uuited States. The 
bank was located at Philadelphia, with power in the 
directors to establish offices of discount and deposite 
only, whereever they should think fit within the 
United States. The duration of the charter was limited 
to the fourth of March, 1811; and the faith of the 
'United States was pledged, that during that period no 
other bank should be established under their authority. 



LIFE 01? JEFFESISON. 19^ 

One of the fundamental articles of the incorporation 
was, that no loan should be made to the United States 
for more tlian one hundred thousand dollars, or to any 
particular state for ir.ore than fiftj^ thousand, or to any- 
foreign Prince or state, unless previously authorized 
hj a law of the United States. The books were open- 
€d for subscriptions in July, 1791, and a much larger 
Bum subscribed than was allowed by the charter ; and 
the bank went into successful operation. This measure 
was not adopted without warm and violent debates. 

It was said in opposition, in the first place, that Con- 
gress had no power, under the constitution, to create 
this or any other corporation ; in the second place, that 
so large a moneyed institution would, in. its effects, bo 
highly injurious to the community. Its advocates, on 
the other hand, contended, generall]^ that tlie establish- 
ment of an institution of this kind, though not within 
the express words of the constitution, was among the 
incidental powers contemplated by that part of the in- 
strument which enabled Congress to make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the 
powers expressly granted. 

The President, before approving the bill, requested 
the opinions of the m.embers of his cabinet, in writing,, 
as to its constitutionality. The Secretary of State, and 
Attorney General, were of opinion, that the bill was 
unconstitutional, while the Secretaries of the Treasury, 
and War, Vv^ere of a different opinion, and concurred 
with the majoritjr in Congress. Mr. Jefferson was de- 
cidedly and warmly opposed to this institution, not only 
on account of its unconstitutionality, but on account of 
the danger to be apprehended to government from the 
18 



198 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

exorbitancy of its power, and the injury which it might 
inflict on community. Tlie following is his official 
opinion on the constitutional question : 

" The bill for establishing a national bank, undei'^ 
takes, among other things, 

1. To form the subscribers into a corporation. 

2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to 
receive grants of land; and so far, is against the laws 
of Mortmain. 

3. To make alien subscribers capable of holdings 
lands; and so far, is against the laws of Alienage. 

4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a pro- 
prietor, to a certain line of successors ; and so far» 
changes the course of Descents. 

5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture and 
escheat ; and so far, is against the laws of Forfeiture 
and Escheat. 

6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a 
certain line ; and so far, is against the laws of Distri- 
bution. 

7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of 
hanking under the national authority ; and so far, is 
against the laws of Monopoly. 

8. To communicate to them a power to make la^vs 
paramount to the laws of the states ; for so they must 
be construed, to protect the institution from the control 
of the state legislatures ; and so, probably, they will be 
construed. 

1 consider the foundation of the constitution as laid 
on this ground, that • all powers not delegated to the 
United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by i! 
to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people/ 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 199 

(Twelfth amendment.) To take a single step beyond 
the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers 
of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field 
of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. 

The incorporation of a bank, and the powers as- 
sumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been 
delegated to the United States by the constitution. 

I. They are not among the powers specially enu- 
merated. For these are, 

1. A power to lay taxes for the purpose of paying 
the debts of the United States. But no debt is paid by 
this bill, nor any tax laid. Were it a bill to raise 
money, its origination in the Senate would condemn it 
hj the constitution. 

2. To ' borrow money.' But this bill neither bor- 
rows money, nor ensures the borrowing it. The pro- 
prietors of the bank will be just as free as any other 
money-holders, to lend or not to lend their money to 
the publick. The operation proposed in the bill, first 
to lend them two millions, and then borrow them back 
again, cannot change the nature of the latter act, which 
will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by what 
oame you please. 

3. ' To regulate commerce with foreign nations, 
and among the states, and with the Indian tribes.' To 
enact a bank, and to regulate commerce, are two very 
difTerent acts. He who erects a bank creates a subject 
of commerce in its bills ; so does he who makes a 
bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar out of the mines.— r- 
Yet neither of these persons regulates commerce there- 
by. To make a thing which may be bought and sold, 
is not to prescribe regulations for buying and selling. 



200 LIFE OF JEFFERSOIC. 

Besides, if this were an exercise of the power of reg- 
mlating commerce, it would be void, as extending- as 
much to the internal commerce of every state, as to its 
external. For the power given to Congress by the 
constitution, does not extend to the internal regulation 
of the commerce of a state, (that is to say, of the com- 
merce between citizen and citizen,) which remains ex- 
clusively within its ovv'n legislature : but to its external 
commerce only, that is to say, its commerce with anoth- 
er state, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian 
tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not propose the 
measure as a 'regulation of trade,' but as 'pioductiv© 
of considerable advantage to trade.' 

Still less are these povt ers covered by any other of 
the special enum.erations, 

11. Nor are they vv'ithin either of the general phra- 
ses, which are the two folio V\'ing. 

1. ' To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare 
of the United States ;' that is to say, 'to la.j taxes /or 
the purpose oi providing for the general welfare.' — 
For the laying of taxes is the 'powers and the general 
welfa;re the purpose for which the power is to be ex- 
ercised. Congress are not to lay taxes, ad lihitu7n,foT 
any purpose they please ; but only to pay the dehts^ 
or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like 
manner, they are not to do any thing they please to 
provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes 
for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as 
describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a dis- 
tinct and independent power to do any act they please 
which might be for the good of the Union, would ren- 
der all, the preceding and subsequent enumerations of 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 201 

power completely useless. It would reduce the whole 
instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Con- 
gress with the power to do Avhatever would be for the 
good of the United States : and as they would be the 
sole judges of tfie good or evil, it would be also a pow- 
er to do whatever evil they pleased. It is an establish- 
ed rule of construction, when a phrase will bear either 
of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some 
meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not 
that which will render all the others useless. Certain- 
ly, no such universal power was meant to be given 
them. It was intended to lace them up straitly vv^ithin the 
enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, 
these powers could not be carried into effect. It is 
known that the very poAver now proposed as a means, 
was rejected as an end by the convention which f0ti^- 
ed the constitution. A proposition Avas made to them, 
to authorize Congress to open canals, and an amenda- 
tory one, to empower them to incorporate. But tho 
whole was rejected : and one of the reasons of rejec- 
tion urged in the debate was, that they then would 
have a power to erect a bank, v/liich would render the 
great cities, where there were prejudices and jealousies 
■on that subject, adverse to the reception of the consti- 
tution. 

2. The second general phrase is, *to make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the 
enumerated powers.' But they can all be carried into 
execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not 
necessary, and conseciaently, not authorized by this 
phrase. 

Xt has been much urged, that a bank will give great 
18* 



202 LIFE 07 JEFFERSOrf. 

facility or convenience to the collection of taxes. Sup* 
pose this were true; yet the constitution allows only 
the means which are ' necessary,' not those which aro 
merely ' convenient,' for effecting the enumerated pow- 
ers. If such a latitude of construction he allowed to this 
phrase, as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go 
to every one ; for there is no one which ingenuity may 
not torture into a convenience, in some way or other^ 
to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers.. 
It would su^allow up all the delegated pou-ers, and 
reduce the whole to one phrase, as before observed. 
Therefore it was, that the constitution restrained them 
to the necessary means, that is to say, to those means 
without which the grant of the power w^ould be nuga- 
tory. 

But let us examine this 'convenience', and see what 
it is. The report on this subject states the only gene- 
ral convenience to be, the preventing the transpor- 
tation and re-transportation of money between the 
States and the treasury. (For I pass over the increase 
of circulating medium ascribed to it as a merit, and 
which, according to my ideas of paper money, is clearly 
a demerit.) Every state will have to pay a sum of 
tax money into the treasury; and the treasury will 
have to pay in every state a part of the interest on tho 
publick debt, and salaries to the officers of govern- 
ment resident in that state. In m.ost of the states, 
there will be still a surplus of tax money, to come up 
to the seat of government, for the officers residing there. 
The payments of interest and salary in each state, may 
'be made by treasury orders on the state collector. — 
This will take up the greater part of the money he 



LIFE OF JEFFERSOW. 2Cf3 

'i' 

has collected in his state, and consequently, prevent ther 
great mass of it from being drawn out of the state. — 
If there be a balance of commerce in favour of that state^ 
Gg-ainst the one in which the government resides, the 
surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of ex- 
change drawn for that commercial balance. And so 
it must be if there were a bank. But if there be no 
balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all 
the banks in the world could not bring us the surplus 
of taxes but in the form of money. Treasury orders, then;, 
end bills of exchange, ;may prevent the displacement 
of the main mass of the money collected, without the 
aid of any bank: and where these faih it cannot bo 
prevented, even with that aid. 

Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more conve- 
nient vehicle than treasury orders. But a little dif- 
ference in the degree of convenience, cannot constitute- 
the necessity which the constitution makes the ground 
for assuming any non-enumerated power. 

Besides, the existing banks will, without doubt, en- 
ter into arrangements for lending their agency, and the 
more favourable, as there will be a competition among 
them for it ; whereas this bill delivers us up bound to 
the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrange- 
ments but on their own terms, and the publick not free, 
on such refusal, to employ any other bank. That of 
Philadelphia, I believe, now does this business by their 
post notes, which, by an arrangement with the treasu- 
ry, are paid by any state collector to whom they aro 
presented. This expedient alone, suffices to prevent 
the existence of that necessity which may justify thg 
assumption of a non-enumerated power, as 4 means for 



fi04 LIFE OF JEFFERSOK. 

carrying into effect an enumerated one. The thrng 
may be done, and has been done, and well done, with- 
out this assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that 
degree of necessity \vhich can honestly justify it. 

It may be said, that a bank, wlrose bills would have 
a currency all over the states, would be more conve- 
nient than one whose currency is limited to a single 
state. So it would be still more convenient, that there 
should be a bank whose bills should have a currency 
all over the world. But it docs not follow from this 
superiour con\^eniency, that there exists any where a 
power to establish such a bank, or that the world may 
iK)t go on very well without it. 

Can it be thought that the constitution intended, that 
for a shade or two of convenience, more or less. Con- 
gress should be authorized to break dov.-n the most 
ancient and fundamental laws of the several states, 
such as those against mortmain, the laws of alienage, 
the rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws 
of escheat and forfeiture, and the laws of monopoly ? 
Nothing but a necessity invincible by any other means, 
can justify such a prostration of laws, which constitute 
the pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence. Will 
Congress be too strait-laced to carry the constitution 
into honest effect, unless they may pass over the foun- 
dation laws of the state governments, for the slightest 
convenience to them ? 

The negative of the President is the shield provided 
by the constitution to protect against the invasions of 
the legislature, 1, the rights of the Executive : 2, of 
the judiciary ; 3, of the state and state legislatures. 
The present is the case of a right remaining excia- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 205 

sively with the states, and is, consequently, one of those 
intended by the constitution to be placed under his 
protection. 

It must be added, hoAvever, that unless the President's 
mind, on a view of every thing- which is urged for and 
against this bill, is tolerably clear that it is unauthor- 
ized by the constitution, if the pro and the con hang so 
even as to balance his judgement, a just respect for the 
wisdom of the legislature would naturally decide the 
balance in fiivour of their opinion. It is chiefly for 
cases where they are clearly misled by errour, ambitioa 
or interest, that the constitution has placed a check in. 
the negative of the President." 

The opinions thus expressed, Mr. Jefferson, ever- 
after, invariably maintained. In a letter to Mr. Gal- 
latin, dated December 13, 1803, he thus expresses his 
fears of the overpov/ering influence of this monopoly ::. 
" This institution is one of the most deadly hostility 
existing against the principles and form of our constitu- 
tion. The nation is, at this time, so strong and united m 
its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this moment.. 
But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, 
eufhcient to bring into doubt the competency of a re- 
publican government to meet a crisis of great danger,, 
or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the publick 
functionaries ; an institution like this, penetrating by 
its branches every part of the Union, acting by com- 
mand and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset 
the government. I deem no government safe which is 
under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities,, 
or any other authority than that of the nation, or its 
regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not 



ft06 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

this bank of the United States, with all its branch 
banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the 
peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought 
we then to give further growth to an institution so 
pbwerful, so hostile ? That it is so hostile we know, 
first, from a knowledge of the principles of the persons 
composing the body of the directors in every bank, 
principal or branch ; and those of most of the stock- 
holders ; second, from their opposition to the measures 
and principles of the government, and to the election 
of those friendly to them : and, third, from the senti- 
ments of the newspapers they support. Now, while 
we are strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the 
safety of our constitution, to bring this powerful enemy 
to a perfect subordination under its authorities. The 
first measure would be to reduce them to an equal foot- 
ing only with other banks, as to the favours of the 
government. But in order to be able to meet a genera^ 
combination of the banks against us in a critical emer- 
gency, could we not make a beginning towards an in- 
dependent use of our own money, tOAvards holding our 
own bank in all the deposites where it is received, and 
letting the Treasurer give his draft or note for payment 
at any particular place, which, in a well conducted 
government, ought to have as much credit as any pri- 
vate draft, or bank note, or bill, and would give us the 
same facilities which we derive from the banks? I 
pray you to turn this subject in your mind, and to give 
it the benefit of your knowledge of details ; whereas I 
have only very general views of the subject." 

The views of the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. 
Hamilton) were e(jually decided in favour of the estaV 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 207 

lishment. The President, after receiving their opinions, 
weighing their reasons, and examining the subject, 
deliberately made up his mind in favour of the consti- 
tutionality of the law, and gave it the sanction of his 
name. This question, for many years afterwards, agi- 
tated the publick mind, and divided the national coun- 
cils ; yet the subsequent establishment of a national 
bank, with a capital of thirty-five millions, with the 
approbation and consent of those heretofore opposed to 
it on constitutional grounds, must rescue the names of 
the authors of the first bank from the reproach then 
cast upon them for a violation of the constitution, Yet 
none will regret that it was adopted with so much 
hesitation, and that it led to so serious a discussion of 
the fundamental principles of our government. 

In this year, 1791, Mr. Hammond arrived in the 
United States as minister from Great Britain. Soon 
after his arrival, a correspondence commenced between 
him and Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, on the 
subjects in controversy between the two countries, par- 
ticularly concerning the inexecution of the treaty of 
peace. The British minister having no authority to 
conclude a commercial treaty, the consideration of that 
subject was postponed. 

In answer to the question put by the American Sec- 
retary as to the intentions of the British government 
in relation to the non-fulfilment of that article of the 
treaty of peace concerning the surrender of the western 
posts, the British minister said, that the execution of 
this article was suspended, in consequence of a breach 
of the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles, on the part of the 
United States:' and that in all their discussions and 



208 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

subsequent arrangements, these subjects could not be 
separated. It was agreed that each should state the 
particular acts done by the other, supposed to be in 
contravention of the treaty. Mr. Jefferson commenced 
on the part of the American government, in December, 
1791, by repeating, that the garrisons had not been 
withdravv'n from the Vv-estern posts, according to the 
stipulations in the seventh article ; that British officers 
had exercised jurisdiction over the country and inhab- 
itants belonging to the United States in the vicinity of 
these posts: that American citizens had been excluded 
from the navigation of the great lakes ; and that, con- 
trary to the same article, a great number of negroes, 
the property of the citizens of the United States, had 
been carried avv'ay at the time of the evacuation of the 
-city of New York. 

The supposed infractions on the part of the United 
States, complained of by the British minister, were, 
1. Impediments to the collection of debts contracted 
before the date of the treaty, by the acts and proceed- 
ings of the several states. 2. The non-restitution of 
Ihe estates of the royalists, confiscated during the war. 
3. The prosecution of the royalists, and the confiscation 
of their property, subsequent to the peace. 

A statem.ent of these infractions was made by the 
British minister, in March, 1792, with a reference to 
the various acts of the states on these subjects. In 
May following, an ansvvrer to this was given by the 
American Secretary showing that, with* respect to 
property confiscated by the individual states, the fifth 
article merely stipulated that Congress should recom- 
mend to the legislatures of the several states, to provide 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 209 

for its restitution. That Congress had done all in their 
power, and all they were bound by treaty to do, by 
recommending a compliance on the part of the states ; 
but that it was left with the states themselves to com- 
ply or not, as they might think proper, and that this 
was so understood by the British negotiators, and by 
the British ministry, at the time the treaty was comple- 
ted. He stated that no confiscations had taken place 
subsequent to the peace. He also claimed, that the 
first infractions were on the part of the British govern- 
ment, by withholding the western posts, and by the 
transportation of negroes ; and that the delays and im- 
pediments which had taken place in the collection of 
British debts, were justifiable on that account. With 
respect to the allowance of interest on the debts, during 
the time the two countries were engaged in war, this, 
be said, was a point much litigated in the courts, and 
in some states were allowed, and in others disallowed. 

This answer of the British Secretary was transmitted 
to the British court by Mr. Hammond; and the new 
state of things which soon after arose in Europe, pre- 
v-ented a reply, or a renewal of the negotiations in 
America. 

The arrival of citizen Genet in this country as min- 
ister from France — his contumacious behaviour while 
here— his arming vessels in our ports, and enlisting' 
American citizens to cruise against nations with whom 
the United States were at peace and in amity — his 
claiming a general admiralty jurisdiction, and assum- 
ing to try the validity of prizes within our territo- 
ry — his exercising other acts of the highest sovereign- 
ty within the same — his projecting a hostile expedi- 
19 



210 L1F£ of JEfFERSON. 

tion from South Carolina and Georgia against the 
Floridas, and another against New Orleans and Lou* 
isiana from the state of Kentucky — his insulting and 
insolent communication to the President — his threaten- 
ed appeal to the publick — the solicitation for his dis- 
missal, and his final recall; — are facts too notorious for 
detail, and belong rather to the political history of the 
United States than to this brief biography. Those 
desirous of full and explicit information on these inter- 
esting subjects, can be gratified by consulting the 
"American State Papers" published tinder the inspec- 
tion of Congress. Suffice it for us to say, that in all 
these transactions, Mr. Jefferson maintained the digni- 
ty of government with firmness and discretion; repel- 
led the sophistry of the Frenchman with success ; and 
the language and conduct he had used in his inter- 
course with the American government, and the un- 
warrantable expressions in which he had indulged 
when speaking of theillustiious man at its head, were 
treated with indignation or contempt. The spirit of 
friendship for the nation was carefully preserved, 
while the unauthorized aggressions of its agent were 
resisted, and his insinuations repelled and denied. 

It may not be improper here to add, that Mr. Genet 
being recalled, his place was supplied by a successor, 
Mr. Fauchet, who arrived in the United States in Feb- 
ruary, 1794. 

The Brissotine party in France, which sent Mr. 
Genet to America, had been supplanted by that of 
Robespierre ; many of the Brissotines were sent to the 
guillotine ; and there can be no doubt, that Genet him- 
self was doomed to the same fate. His successor had 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 211 

special orders to send him back to France, and for 
this purpose to use force, if necessary. 

Fauchet, therefore, immediately after his arrival, 
finding that Mr. Genet did not intend to return, but 
was. rather inclined to stay where he was, requested 
liberty to arrest and send him back, agreeably to his in- 
structions. This was refused by the President. Still 
desirous of effecting his object, he inquired Avhether the. 
Executive would oppose his decoying him on board of ' 
a French vessel, under the pretence of honouring him 
with an entertainment, and then sailing with him for 
Fiance. The President not only refused to wink at 
this clandestine mode of proceeding, but declared he 
would resist it, if necessary, by force. By this up* 
right and impartial conduct, the president, no doubt, 
saved Mr. Genet from the guillotine.* 

In January, 1794, Mr. Jefferson resigned the office 
of Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Mr. Ran- 
dolph. He resigned, with an intention of never again 
resuming any publick office. "For as to myself," says 
he, in a letter to Mr. Madison, "the subject has beei> 
thoroughly weighed and decided on, and my retire- 
ment from office has been meant from all office, high 
or low, without exception. My health is entirely bro- 
ken down within the last eight months ; my age re- 
quires that I should place my affairs in a clear state; 
these are sound if taken care of, but capable of con- 
siderable dangers if longer neglected: and above all 
things, the delights I feel in the society of my family, 
and in the agricultural pursuits in which I am so ea- 

• Pitkioi's United States, 2d vol. 417. 



212 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

gerly engaged. The little spice of ambition which I 
had in my younger days has long since evaporated, 
and I set still less store by a posthumous than present 
name. In stating to you the heads of reasons which 
have produced my determination, I do not mean an 
opening for future discussion, or that I may be reason- 
ed out of it. The question is for ever closed with me." 
The whole time of Mr. Jefferson was now devoted 
to the education of his family, the cultivation of his 
estate, the intercourse of friendship, and the pursuit of 
those philosophical studies which he had so long aban- 
doned, but to which he now returned with revived ardour. 
In the retirement of his closet, and amid such employ- 
ments, the biographer has but little to relate, and detail 
would be monotonous to the reader: yet, perhaps, we 
v/ill be pardoned for introducing the remarks of two 
distinguished French travellers, who visited him at 
different times, and enjoyed his privacy. "His con- 
versation," says the Duke de Liancourl, who visited 
Monticello in '94, " is of the most agreeable kind, and 
he possesses a stock of information not inferiour to that 
of any other man. In Europe he Avould hold a dis- 
tinguished rank among men of letters, and as such he 
has already appeared there. At present he is employ- 
ed with activity in the management of his farms and 
buildings, and he orders, directs, and pursues, in the 
minutest detail, every branch of business relating to 
them. The author of this sketch found him in the 
midst of harvest, from which the scorching heat of 
the sun does not prevent his attendance. His negroes 
are nourished, clothed, and treated as well as white 
servants could be. As he cannot expect any assistance 



LtFE OP JEFFERSON. 213 

from the two small neighbouring towns, every article 
is made on his farm ; his negroes are cabinet makers, 
carpenters, masons, bricklayers, &c. The children he 
f?mplpys in a nail manufactory, which yields already 
a considerable profit. The young and old negresses 
spin for the clothing of the rest. He animates them 
by rewards and distinctions: in fine, his superiour 
mind directs the ro.anagement of his domestick con- 
cerns with the same ability, activity, and regularity, 
which he evinced in the conduct of publick affairs, and 
which he is calculated to display in every situation 
of life.-' 

Twelve years before this, he had made the same im- 
pression on the Marquis de Chastellux, a Major General 
in the French army, and who had come to this country 
with Lieutenant General Count Rochambeau. " The 
conversation," writes the Marquis, " continued, and 
brought us insensibly to the foot of the mountains. On 
the summit of one of them we discovered the house of 
Mr. Jefferson, which stands preeminent in these retire- 
ments : it was himself who built it, and preferred this 
situation ; for although he possessed considerable prop- 
erty in the neighbourhood, there was nothing to pre- 
vent him from fixing his residence whereever he 
thought proper. But it was a debt nature owed to a 
philosopher and a man of taste, that in his own posses- 
sions he should find a spot where he might best study 
and enjoy her. He calls his house Monticello, (in 
Italian, Little Mountain,) a very modest title, for it is 
situated upon a very lofty one, but which announces 
the owner's attachment to the language of Italy ; and, 
above all, to the fine arts, of which that country was 
19* 



214 LIFE OF JEFFERSOir. 

the cradle, and is still the asylum. After ascending hf 
a tolerably commodious road for more than half aa 
hour, we arrived at Monticello. This house, of which 
Mr. Jefferson was the architect, and often one of the 
workmen, is rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, 
though not without a fault : it consists of one large 
square pavilion, the entrance of which is by two porti- 
coes ornamented with pillars. The ground floor con- 
sists chiefly of a very large lofty saloon, which is to be 
decorated entirely in the antique style : above it is a 
library of the same form ; two small wings, with only 
a ground floor, and attick story, are joined to this pa- 
vilion, and communicate with the kitchen, offices, &c. 
which will form a kind of basement story, over which 
runs a terrace. My object in this short description is 
only to show the difference between this and the other 
houses of the country ; for we may safely aver, that 
Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has courted 
the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself 
from the weather. But it is on himself alone I ought 
to bestow my time. Let me describe to you a man, 
not yet forty, tall, and with a mild and pleasing coun- 
tenance, but whose mind and understanding are ample 
substitutes for every exteriour grace. An American, 
who, without ever having quitted his own country, is 
at once a musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, 
an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and 
statesman. A Senator of America, who sat for two 
years in that famous Congress which brought about 
the revolution; a Governour of Virgi:iia, who filled 
this difficult station during the invasions of Arnold, 
of Phillips, and of Cornwallis ; a philosopher, in vol- 



LIFE OP JEFFERSON. 215 

mitary retirement from the world and publick business, 
inasmuch only as he din flatter himself with being 
useful to mankind. A mild and amiable wife, charm- 
ing children, of whose education he himself takes 
charge," a house to embellish, great provisions to im- 
prove, and the arts and sciences to cultivate, these are 
what remain to Mr. Jefferson, after having played a 
principal character on the theatre of the new world, 
and which he preferred to the honourable commission 
of Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe. The visit 
which I made him was not unexpected, for he had long 
since invited me to come and pass a few days with 
him, in the centre of the mountains : notwithstanding 
which, I found his first appearance serious, nay, even 
cold ; but before I had been two hours with him, we 
were as intimate as if we had passed our whole lives 
together : walking, books, but above all, a conversation 
always varied and interesting, made four days pass 
away like so many minutes. Sometimes natural phi- 
losophy, at others politicks, or the arts, were the topicks 
of our conversation, for no object had escaped Mr. 
Jefferson ; and it seemed as if from his youth he had 
placed his mind, as he had done his house, on an ele- 
vated situation, from which he might contemplate ifee 
universe." 

From this retirement, Mr. Jefferson writes to Mr. 
Giles, April 27, 1795, " I shall be rendered very happy 
by the visit you promise me. The only thing wanting 
to make me completely so, is the more frequent society 
of my friends. It is the more wanting, as I am become 
the more firmly fixed to the glebe. If you visit me as 
,a farmer, it must be as a condisciple, for I am but a 



216' LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

learner ; an eager one, indeed, but yet desperate, being 
too old now to learn a new art. However, I am as 
much delighted and occupied with it as if 1 was the 
greatest adept. I shall talk with you about it from 
morning till night, and put you on very short allow- 
ence as to political aliment. Now and then a pious 
ejaculation for the French and Dutch republicans, re- 
turning with due despatch to clover, potatoes, wheat, 

But the situation of the country and the desires of 
many, warmly expressed, did not permit Mr. Jefferson 
iong to enjoy tbe pleasures of a private life; and he 
was drawn most reluctantly from his retirement. Gen- 
eral Washington had, for some time, contemplated a 
retirement from ofHce, and in his farewell address to 
the people of the United States, he had, in the month 
of September, 179G, declined being considered any 
longer a candidate for it. The person in whom alone 
tbe voice of the whole nation could be united, having 
tlms withdrawn, the two great parties, in which the 
country was then divided, respectively brought forward 
their chiefs. Mr. Jefferson was supported by the one, 
Mr. Adams by the other. " The first wish of my 
heart," says the former, in a letter to Mr. Madison, 
•• was, that you should have been proposed for the ad- 
ministration of the government. On your declining 
it, I wish any body rather than myself; and there is 
nothing that I so anxiousl}^ hope, as that my name 
may come out either second or third. These would 
be indifferent to me ; as the last Avould leave me at 
home the whole year, and the other two thirds of it. 
It seems also possible, that .the Representatives may 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 2l7 

be divided. This is a difficulty from which the constitu- 
tion has provided no issue. It is both my duty and incli- 
nation, therefore, to relieve the embarrassment, should 
it happen; and in that case, I pray you and authorize 
you fully, to solicit on my behalf, that Mr. Adams may 
be preferred. He has always been my senior, from 
the commencement of our publick life, and the expres- 
sion of the publick will being equal, this circumstance 
ought to give him the preference. And when so many 
motives will be operating to induce some of the mem- 
bers to change their vote, the addition of my wish 
may liave some effect to preponderate the scale." 

In February, the votes for the first and second 
magistrates of the Union were opened and counted in 
the presence of both houses; and the highest number 
appearing in favour of Mr. Adams, and the second in 
favour of Mr. Jefferson, the first was declared to be 
President, and the second the Vice President of the 
United States for four years, to commence on the fourth 
day of the ensuing March. 

Most of the four succeeding years was passed tran* 
quilly by Mr. Jefierson, in his favourite retreat at Mon* 
ticello. During this period, we find but little notice of 
him among the publick records of the day, and conse- 
quently not much to communicate to the reader. 

The following extract from one of his letters written 
at this time, and in which he frankly and explicitly 
exhibits his political principles, feelings, and attach* 
ments, may not be entirely uninteresting : •' I do, then, 
with sincere zeal, Avish an inviolable preservation of 
our present federal constitution, according to the true 
jBense in which it was adopted by the states, that io 



218 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

which it was advocated by its friends, and not that 
which its enemies apprehended, who, therefore, became 
its enemies : and I am opposed to the monarchizing its 
features by the forms of its administration, with a 
view to conciliate a first transition to a President and 
Senate for life, and from that to a hereditary tenure of 
these offices, and thus to worm out the elective princi- 
ple. I am for preserving to the states the powers not 
yielded by them to the Union ; and to the legislature of 
the Union its constitutional share in the division of 
powers : and I am not for transferring all th.e powers of 
the states to the general government, and all those of that 
government to the Executive branch. I am for a gov- 
ernment rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the 
possible savings of the publick revenue to the discharge 
of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of offi- 
cers and salaries merely to make partisans, and for in- 
cieasing, by every device, the publick debt, on the 
principle of its being a publick blessing. I am for re- 
lying, for internal defence, on our militia solely, till 
actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may 
protect our coast and harbours from such depredations 
Qs wchave experienced; and not for a standing army 
in time of peace, which may overawe the publick sen- 
timent; nor for a navy which, by its own expense, and 
the eternal wars into which it will implicate us, will 
grind us with publick burdens, and sink us under them. 
I am for free commerce with all nations : political con- 
nexion with none ; and little or no diplomatick estab- 
lishment: and 1 am not for linking ourselves by new 
treaties with the quarrels of Europe ; entering that field 
of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON* 210 

the confederacy of kings to war against the principles 
of liberty. I am for freedom of religion, and against 
all manoeuvres to bring about a legal ascendency of 
one sect over another; for freedom of the press, 
and against all violations of the constitution to silence 
by force, and not by reason, the complaints of criti- 
cisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the con- 
duct of their agents. And I am for encouraging the 
progress of science in all its branches ; and not for 
raising a hue and cry against the sacred name of phi- 
losophy ; for awing the human mind by stories of raw- 
head and bloody-bones to a distrust of its own vision, 
and to repose implicitly on that of others : to go back- 
wards instead of forwards to look for improvement • 
to believe that government, religion, morality, and eve- 
ry other science were in their highest perfection in the 
ages of the darkest ignorance, and that nothing can ever 
be devised more perfect than what was established by 
our forefathers. To these I will add, that I was a sin* 
cere well wisher to the success of the French revolu- 
tion, and still wish it may end in the establishment of 
a free and well-ordered republick; but I have not been 
insensible under the atrocious depredations they have 
committed on our commerce. The first object of my 
heart is my own country. In that is embarked my 
family, my fortune, and my own existence. I have 
not one farthing of interest, nor one fibre of attachment 
out of it, nor a single motive of preference of any one 
nation to another, but in proportion as they are more 
or less friendly to us." 

But a new election was now approaching, and the 
hopes and wishes of the republican party were again 



220 LIFti OF JEFFERSON. 

fixed upon Mr. Jefferson. At this time party divisions 
were drawn to a strong and inseparable line, and were 
particularly distinguished by virulence and acrimony. 
They rested, in a great measure, upon points of foreign 
policy, and on foreign predilections or aversions. Mr. 
Adams had been rendered unpopular by his apparent 
apathy towards the French revolution, and by the 
charges repeatedly made, that himself and party were 
favourably inclined towards Great Britain. The ex- 
penditure of money under his administration, for build- 
ing a navy, and for other purposes, was thought by 
many to have been impolitick, or useless ; and the 
enactment of an alien law, by w^hich the President was 
authorized to compel suspected foreigners to leave the 
country: and of the sedition law, which provided that 
the authors and publishers of false and malicious ac- 
cusations against the President and members of Con- 
gress should be prosecuted and criminally punished, 
was loudly and vehemently condemned. Under the 
sedition law, several persons, and those of considerable 
notoriety on the political arena, had already been im- 
prisoned. The sympathies of the people were awa- 
kened in their behalf, and inflammatory writers had 
aroused their passions and incited their indignation 
against those at whose instance they were confined. — 
The federalists supported Mr. Adams and General 
Pinckney ; the republicans, Mr. Jefferson and Colonel 
Burr : and both parties being animated by the prospect 
of success, the contest was maintained* with uncommon 
ardour. 

But a most untoward and unlooked-for event now oc- 
curred. By the constitution, as it existed at that period, 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 221 

€ach elector voted for two men without designating 
which was to be President ; and he who obtained the 
greatest number of votes was to be President, and the 
nearest to him Vice President, Mr. Jefferson and Col- 
onel Burr had an equal number of votes, and the elec- 
tion, according to the constitution, was to be decided 
by the House of Representatives. Here it also most 
singularly occurred, that the states were, for a long 
time, equally divided ; and hopes were expressed by 
liis friends, and fears reluctantly admitted by his op- 
.ponents, that Mr. Burr would be elected to the office of 
President. Week after week were the people kept in 
intense solicitude, while the contest was thus main- 
tained; again and again the voting went round, and 
the result continued the same; and every exertion was 
made to raise to the highest office of the nation, a mm 
who had not received for that purpose a solitary vote 
of the people. The time limited by the constitution 
for the election of a President had nearly arrived, and 
there was danger that government must come to a 
pause, or be resolved into its original elements. At 
length, after thirty five ineffectual ballots, one of the 
representatives of the state of Maryland made publick 
the contents of a letter to himself, written by Mr. Burr, 
in which he declined all pretensions to the Presidency, 
and authorized him to disclaim, in his name, any com- 
petition with Mr. Jefferson. On this specifick decla- 
ration, two federal members, who represented the 
states which had heretofore voted b!ank, withdrew, and 
permitted the republican members from those states to 
become a majority. Consequently, on the thirty-sixth 
20 



222 LIFE OF JEFFERSON^ 

balloting, Mr. Jeffdrson was elected President, and 
Colonel Burr became, of course, Vice President. 

On the fourth of March, 1801, he took the oath of 
office and was inaugurated President of the United 
States. In December ensuing, he sent his first message 
to the national legislature. On this occasion, ho depart- 
ed from the practice which had hitherto prevailed, 
and instead of personally delivering a speech to the 
two houses of Congress, he transmitted to them a 
written message, \vh ch was first read by the Senate, 
and then sent to the House of Representatives. The 
example thus set, has since been followed by every 
successive Executive. This message increased the 
reputation of Mr. Jefferson, and was worthy of the 
pen which drafted the Declaration of Independence. 
It has often been referred to as containing the manual 
of democracy, and the theoretical outlines of a free 
government. We shall here introduce it, not only as 
a specimen of composition which does honour to the 
writer, but as exhibiting the liberal and patriotick prin- 
ciples of the man. 

Friends and pei^low citizen's, 

Called upon lo undertake ihe duties of the first executive 
office of our cDuniry, I avail myself of the pre^crxe of that 
portion of my fellow citizens which i> here assembled, to ex- 

Eress my j^jra'cful thanks for the favour with which they have 
een pleased to look towards me; to declare a sirceie con- 
sciousness;, that the task is above my talents, and that I ap- 
proach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which 
the o;reatn 'ss of the charge, and the weakness of my powers, so 
justly in^pir \ A ri ;ing naion, 'spread over a wide and Jiuilful 
land — traversing all the sea> with the rich productions of their 
industry — ^ngxg-^d in om nerci with nations who feel power 
and f »rgit rig'it — alvancing rapidly to destinies beyond the 
reach of m )rta! ev?. — wh?n I C3ntempl?itc these transcendent 
objects, an I see tbe ho^oui", the happiness, and the hopes of 
this babViid country, commilted lo the issue and the auspices of 



LIFS OF JEFFERSOHr. 223 

this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself 
before Uie magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, 
should I despair, did not the presence of many, whom I here 
see, remind me, that in the other high authorities provided by 
our constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, 
and of zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, 
then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions 
of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with 
encouragement for that guidance and support which may 
enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all 
embarked, amidst the conllicting elements of a troubled world. 

Djring the contest of opi ,ion through which we have past, 
the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes 
worn an aspect which might impose on strangers, unused to 
think freely, and to speak and to write what they think ; but this 
being now' decided by the voice of the nation, announced ac- 
cording 10 the rules of the constitution, all will, of course, ar- 
range tiiemselves under the will of the law, and unite in com- 
mon efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind 
this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is, in 
all cases, to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable — 
that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws 
must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, 
fellow citizens, unite with one heart, and one mind. Let us 
restore to social intercourse, that harmony and affection, with- 
out which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; 
and let us reflect, tha^, having banished from our land that reli- 
gious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suf- 
fered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political 
intolerance, as despotick, as wicked, and capable of as bitter 
and bloody persecutions. 

During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world — 
during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, 
through blood and slaughter, his long lost liberty — it was not 
wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even 
this distant and peaceful shore — that this should be more felt 
and feared by some, and less by others — and should divide 
opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opin- 
ion is not a difference of principle. We have called by differ- 
ent names, brethren of the same principle. We .are all Re- 
publicans ; WE ARE ALL FEDEirujsTs. If thcrc be any among us 
who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its repub- 
lican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the 
safety with which errour of opinion may be tolerated, where 
reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some 
honest men fear that a republican government cannot be 
strong — that this government is not strong enough. But would 
the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, 
abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, 
on the theoretick and vi.>ionary fear, that this government, the 
world's best hope, may. by possibility, want energy to preserve 



224 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

itself 1 Itrastnot. I believe this, on the contrary, the strong- 
est government on earth : I believe it the only one, where every 
man, at the call of ihe law, would fly to the standaid oi the law, 
and would meet invasions olthe publick order as his own per- 
sonal concern. Sometimes it is said, that man cannot be trusted 
with the gov^ernment of himself: can he then be trusted with 
the government of others '? or have we found angels, in the form. 
of kings, to govern him 1 Let history answer tiiis question. 

Let us, then, with courage and C(»nhdence, pursue our own 
federal and republican principles — our attaciiment to union 
and representative government. Kindly separated, by nature, 
and a wide ocean, from the exterminatmg havock of one quar- 
ter of th 3 globe — too high-minded to endure the degradations of 
the others — possessing a chosen country, with room enough lor 
our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth geneiation 
— entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our 
own faculties — to the acquisitions of our own industry — to 
honour and confidence from our lellow citizens ; resulting not 
from birth, but from our actions, and their sense of them — en- 
lightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practi- 
S3d in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, 
temperance, gratitude, and the love of man — acknowledging 
and adoring an overruling Providence, which, by all its dis- 
pensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man 
here, and his greater happiness nereatier — with all these bles- 
sings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosper- 
ous people 1 — Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and' 
frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring, 
one another ; shall leave them otherwise free to regulate 
their own pursuits of industry and improvement ; and shall 
not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned. 
This is the sum of good government ; and this is necessary ta 
close the circle of our felicities. 

About to enter, tenow citizens, on the exercise of duties^ 
which comprehend every thing dear and valuable to you, it is 
proper you should understand what I deem the essential prin- 
ciples of our government, and consequently those which ought 
to shape its adminis ration. I will compress them withJn the nar- 
rowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, 
but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men 
of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political— peace, 
commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling 
alliances with none— -the support of the state governments in 
all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our 
domestick concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti=repub- 
lican tendencies— the preservation of the general government 
in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our 
peace at home, and safety abroad— a jealous care of the right 
of election by the people — a mild and safe corrective of abu- 
ies, which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where peace- 
able remedies are unprovided — absolute acquiescence in tho 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 225 

decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republicks, 
from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and 
immediate parent oi despotism — a well-disciplined militia, our 
best reliance m peace, and for the first moments of war, till 
regulars may relieve them — the supremacy of the civil over 
the military authority — economy in the publick expense, ihat 
labour may be lightly burdened — the honest payment of our 
debts, and sacred preservation of publick faith — encoirage- 
ment of agriculture, and of commerce, as its handmaid — the 
diffusion of information, and arrangement of all abases at the 
bar of the piblick reason— freedom of religion— freedom of 
the press — and freedom ol person, under the protection of the 
habaa? corpus, and trials by juries impartially selected. These 
principles form the bright constellation, which has gone before 
us, and glided our steps through an age of revolution and re- 
formition. The wisdom of our sages, and blood of our he- 
roes, have been devoted to their attainment. They should be 
the cre^d of our poliiical faii.h — the text of civick inslructioa 
■ — the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; 
and should we wander from them, in moments of errour or 
alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road 
which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. 

I reniir, ihen, fellow citizen^, to the post you have assigned 
me. With experience enough, in subordinate offices, to have 
seen the didi^ulties of this, the greatest of all, I have learned to 
expect, that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man, to 
retire from this station with the reputaliim, and the favour, 
which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high 
conhience you repn>3d in our first and greatest revolutionary 
character, whose presninentservices had entitled him to the first 
place in his country's love, and destined for him the fairest page 
in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only, 
as mxy give firmness and eTiCl to the legal administration of 
your afFxirs. I shall often go wrong, through defect of judge- 
ment. Waen rig"i% I shall often be thought wrong, by those 
who5e positions will not Aiommand a view of the whole ground. 
I ask your indulgence for my own errours, which will never 
be intentional ; and your support against the errours of others, 
who miy condemn what they would not, if seen in all its parts. 
The approbation implied by your suffrage, is a great consola- 
tion to m3 for the past; and my future solicitude will be, to 
retain the gDoi opinion of tho;e who have bestowed it in ad- 
vance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in 
my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom 
of all. 

Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance 
with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever 
you become sensible how much better choices it is in your 
powvir to mVce. And may that infinite power, which rules the 
destinies of the universe, lead our councils to what is best, and 
give them a favourable issue for our peace and prosperity. 

TH: JEFFERSON. 
20* 



226 LIPB OF JEFFERSON. 

It would not be consistent with the brevity of these 
memoirs, nor interesting to the reader, to enter into the 
details of Mr. Jefferson's administration. All the facts 
are recent, and the principal ones well known. Neither, 
perhaps, would it be proper. 7'he transactions of his 
administration, which excited so much feeling, have 
not yet reached the moment when they may become 
subjects for dispassionate investigation. They have 
not yet parted with the heat which the excited spirit of 
the period gave them. 

The greatest measure of Mr. Jefferson's first admin- 
istration was the acquisition of Louisiana. He early 
became convinced of the absolute necessity of obtain- 
ing this territory. " Whilst the prosperity and sove- 
reignty of the Mississippi and its waters" — we use his 
own language — " secured an independent outlet for the 
produce of the western states, and an uncontrolled navi- 
gation through their whole course, free from collision 
with other powers, and the dangers to our peace from, 
that source, the fertility of the country, its climate and 
extent, p^romise, in due season, important aids to our 
treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a 
wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal 
laws." This was the most important acquisition ever 
made by our- country. The territory acquired inclu- 
ded all the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, and 
more than doubled the area of the United States; while 
the new part was not inferiour to the old in soil, cli- 
mate, productions, and important communications. — 
And while the Canadas have been haunting the Bri- 
tish Parliament for seventy years> like a wrathful 
ghost, constantly harassed with a legislation that never 



tlFK OF JEFFERSON. 227 

eatisfies them, overwhelmed with favours that do not 
propitiate, and taunted with concessions which are as 
grateful to a proud colony, as alms-bread is to a proud 
man, Louisiana has sprung up at once into an affec- 
tionate, congenial member of the confederacy. The 
sum of fifteen millions of dollars was the price paid 
for this acquisition ; and on the twentieth of Decem- 
ber, 1803, it was formally surrendered to tho United 
States by the commissioner of France. 

The period for a new election was now approaching, 
and so much had Mr. Jefferson's popularity increased 
during his administration, that he was elevated a second 
time to the Presidency, by a majority which had risen 
from eight votes to one hundred and forty-eight. The 
venerable George Clinton of the state of New York 
was, at the same time, chosen Vice President: and 
both, according to custom, were sworn into office on 
the fourth of March, 1805. 

Mr. Jefferson entered upon the arduous duties of his 
lofty station, deeply impressed with the confidence re- 
posed in him by his fellows citizens; and he asserted 
his determination, as he believed it to be his duty, to 
be guided solely by those principles which had thus 
been sanctioned by the unequivocal approbation of his 
country. " I do not fear," he said, '*that any motives 
of interest may lead me astray ; I am sensible of no 
passion which would seduce me knowingly from the 
path of justice: but the weaknesses of human nature, and 
the limits of my own understanding, will produce er- 
rours of judgement, sometimes injurious to your inter- 
ests ; I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence I have 
heretofore experienced — the want of it will certainly not 



228 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too, the 
favour of that Being in whose hands we are, who led 
our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, 
and planted them in a country flowing with all the 
necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our 
infancy with his providence, and our riper years with 
his wisdom and power." 

Almost immediately after the election of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, the conduct of Colonel Burr began to attract the 
vigilant eye of the chief magistrate. This gentleman, 
notwithstanding his former services, and his undoubted 
talents, had subjected himself to merited obloquy. He 
had long been discarded by the republicans, and a 
duel with General Hamilton, which terminated fatally 
to the latter, had rendered him an object of abhorrence 
to the federalists, and degraded him in the eyes of the 
Union. Thus situated, soured by disappointments, 
and denied the confidence of his fellow citizens, he had 
retired into the western states, a stricken, and, as he 
conceived, an injured man. In the autumn of 1806, 
his mysterious movements attracted the attention of 
g-overnment. He had purchased and was building 
boats on the Ohio, and engaging men to descend that 
river. His declared purpose was to form a settlement 
on the banks of the Wachita, in Louisiana- but the 
character of the man, the nature of his preparations, 
and the incautious disclosures of his associates, led to 
the suspicion that his true object was either to gain pos- 
session of New Orleans, and erect into a separate gov- 
ernment the country watered by the Mississippi and 
its branches, or to invade, from the territories of the 
United States, the rich Spanish province of Mexico. 



LIFE OF JEFrERSON. 229 

But whatever may have been the ultimate object of 
his plans, no sooner had Mr. Jefferson received infor- 
mation that a number of private individuals were com- 
bining together, arming and organizing themselves 
contrary to law, with the avowed object of carrying on 
some military expedition against the territories of 
Spain, than he took immediate measures to arrest and 
bring to justice its authors and abettors. Colonel Burr, 
finding his scheme thus discovered and defeated, and 
hearing, at the same time, that several persons suspect- 
ed of being his accomplices had been arrested, fled in 
disguise from Natchez, and was apprehended on tho 
Tombigbee. Two indictments were found against him, 
one charging him with treason against the United 
States, the other with preparing and commencing an 
expedition against the dominions of Spain. He was 
bound over to take his trial on the last charge alone, 
the Chief Justice thinking there was not sufficient evi- 
dence of an overt act in the former. On the 17th of 
August, t'807, he was brought to trial before Judge 
Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. The 
assemblage of individuals was fully proved ; but there 
was not sufficient legal evidence to establish the pres- 
ence of Colonel Burr, or the use of any force against 
the authority of the United States, and the consequence 
was, an acquittal by the jury. The people, however^ 
believed him guilty, and in this opinion the President 
largely shared. 

The wars produced by the French revolution still 
continued to agitate and convulse the whole of Eu- 
rope. While, on the one hand, the kings of the earth 
were repelled from the soil of France, and forced, by 



« 
230 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

(he genius of one man, to summon every resource, and 
exert every skill, for the preservation of their own do- 
minions; on the other, the navy of England traversed 
the ocean unrestrained, and rode triumphant on every 
sea. In the fierce animosity of these two great helli- 
gerents, the rights of the unoffending neutral were but 
little respected. And few ships were found on the 
ocean except those of the United States and Great 
Britain. " The latter," says a clear, comprehensive, 
and classical writer, "having always found it impossible 
to man her numerous fleets by volunteer enlistments, 
had been accustomed to resort to impressment, or seiz- 
ing by force her subjects, and compelling them to serve 
as sailors on board her ships of war. Soon after the 
peace of 1783, she claimed a right to search for and 
«eize them, even on board of neutral vessels while 
traversing the ocean. In the exercise of this pretended 
right, citizens of the United States, sometimes by mis- 
take and sometimes by design, were seized, dragged 
from their friends, transported to distant parts of the 
world, compelled to perform the degrading duty of 
British sailors, and to fight with nations at peace with 
their own. Against this outrage upon personal liberty, 
and the rights of American citizens, Washington, 
Adams, and Jefferson had remonstrated in vain. The 
abuse continued, and every year added to its enormity, 
until a feeling of resentment was aroused worthy the 
best period of the Roman republick. But not in this 
mode only were the rights of the United States invaded 
and their interest sacrificed on the ocean. The carry- 
ing trade afforded a harvest too rich 'and too tempting 
to British cupidity to be long enjoyed unmolested. 



LIFE OF JEFFERKON. 231 

American ships carrying to Europe the produce of 
French colonies, were, in an early stage of the war, 
captured by British cruisers, and condemned by their 
courts as lawful prize. Several European ports under 
the control of France were declared by British orders 
in council, dated in May, 1806, to be in a state of block- 
ade, although not invested with a British fleet, and 
American vessels attempting to enter those ports, w6re 
also captured and condemned. France and her allies 
suffered, as well as the United States, from these trans- 
gressior.s against the laws of ralicr.s. And her ven- 
geance fell, not so much upon the belligerent inflicting 
the injury, as upon the neutral enduring without re- 
senting and repelling it. By a decree issued at Berlin, 
in November, 180G, the French Emperour declared 
the British islands in a state of blockade, and of course 
authorized the capture of all neutral vessels attempting 
to trade with those islands. From these measures of 
both nations, the commerce of the United States suffered 
severely, and their merchants loudly demanded redress 
and protection 

"Bonaparte having declared his purpose of enforcing 
with rigour the Berlin decree, and the British govern- 
ment hiving solemnly asserted the right of search and 
impressment, and having intimated their intention to 
adopt measures in retaliation of the French decree, 
Mr. Jeffl'rson recommended to Congress that the sea- 
men, ships and merchandise should be detained in port 
to preserve them from the dangers which threatened 
them on the ocean. A law laying an indefinite embargo 
was in consequence enacted. A hope to coerce the 
belligerent powers to return to the observance of the 



232 Lin OF JEFFERSON. 

laws of nations, by depriving them of the benefits de- 
rived from the trade of America, was doubtless a con- 
curring (and perhaps the strongest) motive for passing 
the law." 

This enactment, at the time of its passage, was receiv- 
ed by many with clamour and discontent, and the distress 
which the people endured from its operation was un- 
mitigated and severe. But the wisdom of the measure 
was shortly manifested, and before a year had expired, 
overtures were made by the British government which 
indicated a disposition to recede from or meliorate their 
tyrannical edicts. These overtures were succeeded by 
negotiations, which finally terminated in a repeal of 
the most objectionable features of the orders in council. 

The period had now arrived, when Mr. Jefferson 
was to enjoy that retirement and philosophick ease 
which he had so long coveted, and to which he was 
•so ardently attached. Publick employment, and office, 
had never been his choic?, and nothing but duty to his 
<!Ountry had ever drawn him from the retreats of Mon- 
ticello. Believing that no person should hold the 
office of chief magistrate longer than eight years, he 
had previously announced his intention that, when his 
iservice had completed the stipulated term, he should 
retire to private life. Fie had now reached the age of 
sixty-five years, forty of which had been employed in 
the arduous duties of publick life. No one had served 
the country with more industry, zeal, and benefit, and 
no one had sacrificed more personal comfort for that 
purpose: and he now retired from the "scene of his 
glory," before age bad dimmed hiseye, or impaired his 
usefulness. He relinquished his high and honourable 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 233 

Station, carrying with him the best wishes of all, and 
knowing at the same time that his name was associated 
with the most interesting events in the history of his 
•country, and there was awarded to him unsullied fame 
and distinguished reputation. His parting language 
to Congress was as follows : 

" Availing myself of this, the last occasion which 
will occur of addressing the two houses of the legisla- 
ture at their meeting, I cannot omit the expression of 
my sincere gratitude, for the repeated proofs of confi- 
dence manifested to me by themselves and their prede- 
cessors, since my call to the administration, and the 
many indulgences experienced at their hands. The 
same grateful acknowledgments are due to my fellow 
citizens generally, whose support has been my great 
encouragement under all embarrassments. In the 
transaction of their business, 1 cannot have escaped er- 
rour. It is incident to our imperfect nature. But I 
may say with truth, my errours hav€ been of the un- 
derstanding, not of intention; and that the advancement 
of their rights and interests has been the constant 
motive of every measure. On these considerations, I 
solicit their indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety 
to their future destinies, I trust, that in their steady 
character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of 
liberty, obedience to law, and support of publick au- 
thorities, I see a sure guarantee of the permanence of 
our republick ; and retiring from the charge of their 
affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm per- 
suasion, that Heaven has in store for our beloved 
country, long ages to come of prosperity and happi- 



21 



234 LIFE OF JEFFERSON* 



CHAPTER V. 

From this period, with the exception of excursions 
which business required, Mr. Jefferson passed the rest 
of his life ahogether at Monticello ; which was a con- 
tinued scene of the blandest and most liberal hospital- 
ity. Into this retirement of his domestick life we can- 
not penetrate, unless through the medium of his cor- 
respondence. Of this, fortunately, we are left in pos- 
session, and there is a charm and interest thrown about 
his letters written at this time, which amply compensate 
for their perusal. There is in them, said a competent 
judge, after their perusal, so much remembrance of 
the labours and excitements of earlier days ; so much 
living over past times in the pleasant and somewhat 
pensive garrulity of age; so much clinging after old 
affections not yet chilled, and gathering again around 
him what had been casually dropped in the bustling 
journey of life; such ardent desires to retain the attach- 
ments which yet remained, to renew those that had 
been weakened by accident and time, and to weave 
more strongly in his heart the affections which were 
rapidly becoming more few ; that we have turned to 
them again and again, and have entered fully into the 
feeling with which he contended, even to the last, to 
take up his pen in affectionate communion with his 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 235 

.'Viends, though suffering severely from the infirmities 
of age. " While writing to you," he says to Mr. 
Adams, *' I lose the sense of these things in the recol- 
lection of ancient times, when youth and health made 
happiness out of every thing, I forget for a while the 
hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing 
but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid 
of our heavy hours, until the friendly hand of death 
shall rid us of all at once." 

And of this correspondence, the most interesting 
portion is that which Mr. Jefferson, towards the close 
of his life, held with Mr. Adams. They had, says 
another writer, been coadjutors in former days of trial 
and danger. They had laboured side by side in the 
same field. At length the separation of parties estran- 
ged them from each other. Each retired from the helm 
of state to his farm, his family, and his books. Their 
early companions had almost all disappeared ; and 
they left alone among a new generation. The jealousies 
inseparable from their late rivalry, neither of them 
wished any longer to feel or acknowledge, and what- 
ever remained gradually gave place to the recollec- 
tions of their ancient friendship. The infirmity of 
advanced age, which shows itself in the forgetfulness 
of recent events, while those of former days are still 
fresh in the mind, came in aid of their good feelings. 
They more readily forgot the recent estrangement, 
and more easily returned to their former attachment. 
There was only wanting something to give occasion 
to the renewal of their correspondence. It thus occur- 
red. Two of Mr. Jefferson's neighbours having, by 
the invitation of Mr. Adams, passed the day with him 



236 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

at Braintree, he remarked upon the injustice done by 
the licentiousness of the press to Mr. Jefferson, adding, 
" I always loved Jefferson, and still love him." Mr. 
Jefferson, in relating this anecdote,. subjoins, "This is 
enough for me. I only needed this acknowledgment 
to revive towards him all the affections of the most 
cordial moments of our lives." The ensuing remarks 
do honour to his candour and;liberality. 

" Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin's 
character of him, I knew him to be always an honest 
man, often a great one, but sometimes incorrect and 
precipitate in his judgements ; and it is known to those 
who have ever heard me speak of Mr. Adams, that I 
have ever done him justice myself, and defended him 
when assailed by others, with the single exception as 
to his political opinions. But with a man possessing 
so many other estimable qualities, why should we be 
dissocialized by mere differences of opinion in poll'? 
ticks, in religion, in philosophy, or in any thing else. 
His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our 
different views of the same subject are the result of 
a difference in our organization and experience. I 
never withdrew from the society of any man on this 
account, although many have done it from me ; much 
less should I dc it fr:om one- with whom I had gone 
through with hand and heart so m.any trying scenes. 
I wish, therefore, but for an appropriate occasion to ex- 
press to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him." 

Their former friendship thus revived, they continued 
to communicate to each other their opinions on gov- 
arnment, morals, and religion. They amused their 
leisure by reviewing the speculations of Pythagor^as 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 237 

nnd Plato, of Epicurus and Cicero, and derived a new 
pleasure from the studies of their youth, by applying 
to them the results of their long experience. The 
armour which, like old soldiers after their dismission 
from honourable service, they could no longer use, it 
was their pride to keep polished, and retain in their 
sight. While the busy worldraround them was engaged 
in the contentions of party, or of business, they were 
peacefully interchanging their reminiscences of early 
life ; inquiring after their surviving and departed com- 
panions; correcting inaccurate relations of their own 
history ; or comparing their reflections on the books 
which had become their resource and solace. Their 
strongest and latest feelings were in favour of the lib- 
erty of men and of nations: and it is a most inter- 
esting fact, that the last words of Mr. Adams were 
those of patriotick ejaculation, responsive to the bell 
which then rung in celebration of the anniversary of 
our independence ; and the last letter of Mr. Jefferson 
was an expression of a hopeless wish •' to participate 
with his friends in the rejoicings on that day." The 
same day which had marked the most honourable 
epoch of their lives, was that in which Providence 
gave them the privilege to die. 

It is from this portion of his works, too, as has been 
observed, that we obtain the best view of his general 
character and sentiments, which are poured out in his 
letters with full and unaffected freedom ; and it is from 
these that we shall make such extracts as may impress 
on our readers more correctly and clearly his peculiar 
personal traits. His habits and occupations, after 
his retirement from office enabled him to arrange 
21* 



238 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

them with more satisfaction and regularity, are best 
described in his own words, which we select fromdii^' 
ferent parts of his correspondence. 

" I live so much like other people, that I might refer 
to ordinary life as the history of my own. Like my 
friend Dr. Rush, I have lived temperately, eating little 
animal food, and that not as an aliment so much as a 
condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my prin- 
cipal diet. I double, however, the doctor's glass and 
a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend : but 
halve its effects by drinking the weak wines only. — 
The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor do I use ardent 
spirits in any form. Malt liquors and cider are my 
table drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of my 
friend, is of tea and coffee. I have been blest with 
organs of digestion which accept and concoct, without 
ever murmuring, whatever the palate chooses to con- 
sign to them, and I have not yet lost a tooth by age. 
I was a hard student until I entered on the business of 
life, the duties of which leave no idle time to those dis- 
posed to fulfil them: and now retired, and at the age 
of seventy^six, I am again a hard student. Indeed, 
my fondness for reading and study revolts me from 
the drudgery of letter writing; and a stiff wrist, the 
consequence of an early dislocation, makes writing 
both slow and painful. I am not so regular in my 
sleep as the doctor says he was, devoting to it from 
five to eight hours, according as my company or the 
books I am reading interests me ; and I never go to 
bed without an hour or half hour's previous reading of 
something moral, whereon to ruminate in the intervals 
of sleep. But whether I retiie to bed ear y or late, I rise 



LIFE OF JEFFERSOrr. 23© 

vnih. the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessari- 
ly in the day, unless i'l reading small print. My hear- 
ing is distinct in particular conversation, but confused 
when. several voices cross each other, whi(;h unfits me 
for the society of the table. I have been more fortu- 
nate than my friend in the article of health. So free 
from catarrhs, that I have not had one (in the breast, I 
mean) on an average of eight or ten years through 
life. I ascribe this exemption partly to the habit of 
bathing my feet in cold water every morning, for sixty 
years past. A fever of more than twenty-four hours 1 
have not had above two or three times in'Yny life.— 
A periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, 
once, perhaps, in six or eight years, for two or three 
weeks at a time, which seems now to have left me. 
Retired at Monticello, in the bosom of my family, 
and surrounded by my books, I enjoy a repose to 
which I'was long a stranger. My mornings are de- 
voted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I 
am in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among 
my farms; from dinner to dark, I give to society and 
recreation with my neighbours and friends -^ and from 
candle light to early bed time, I read. My health is 
perfect ; and my strength considerably reinforced by 
the activity of the course I pursue; perhaps it is as 
great as usually falls to the lot of one of my age. I 
talk of ploughs and harrows, seeding and harvesting, 
with my neighbours, and of politicks, too, if they 
choose, with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow 
citizens, and feel at length the blessing of being free 
to say and do what I please, without being responsible 
for it ta any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by 



S40 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

no means the least pleasing, is the direction of the 
studies of such young men as ask it. They place 
themselves in the neighbouring village, and have the 
use of my library and counsel,, and make apart of my 
society. In advising the course of their reading, I 
endeavour to keep their attention fixed on the main 
objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of 
man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils 
and government of their country, they will ever keep 
in view the sole objects of all legitimate government. 
As to politicks, of which I have taken final leave, I 
think little of them, and say less. I have given up 
newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, 
for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself much the 
happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former 
occurrences, in remembrance of our old friends and 
fellow labourers who have fallen before us. Of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, I see now 
living, not more than half a dozen north of the Poto- 
mack, and on this side, myself alone. You (Mr. 
Adams) and I have been wonderfully spared, and my- 
self with remarkable health, and a considerable activ- 
ity of body and mind. I am on horseback three or 
four hours of every day; visit three or four times a 
year a possession I have ninety miles distant, perform- 
ing the w^inter journey on horseback. I walk little, 
however; a single mile being too much for me; and 
I live in the midst of my grandchildren, one of whom 
has lately promoted me to be a great grandfather. I 
have heard with pleasure that you also retain good 
health, and a greater power of exercise in walking 
than I do. Bui I; would rather have heard this from 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 24|» 

yourself, and that, writing a letter like mine, full of 
egotisms, and of details of your health, your habits^ 
occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the pleas- 
ure of knowing, that in the race of life you do not 
keep, in its physical decline, the same distance' ahead 
of mo, which you have done in political honours and 
achievements. No circumstances have lessened the in- 
terest I feel in these particulars respecting yourself; 
none have suspended for one moment my sincere es- 
teem for you, and I now salute you. with unchanged 
affection and respect." 

The Duke of Saxe Weimar, who wp.s in this coun- 
try in 1825 and 1826, thus, at this late period, describes 
the- appearance of the sage of Monticello, who had in- 
vited him to dine. 

"Our long walk caused such a delay, that we found 
the company at table when we entered ; but Mr. Jef- 
ferson came very kindly to meet us, forced us to our 
seats, and ordered dinner to be served up anew. Ho 
was an old man of eighty-two years of age, of tall sta- 
ture, plain appearance, and long- while hair. 

•' In conversation he was very lively, and- his spirits^ 
as also his hearing and sight, seemed not to have de- 
creased at all with his advancing age. I found him a 
man who retained his faculties remarkably well in his 
old age, and one would have taken him for a man of 
sixty." 

The following letter of Mr. Jefferson to his young 
relative, though long, is so full of good sense and 
«ound advice, that we cannot avoid inserting it. It 
was written somewhat before the period to which wq 
have now arrived. 



242 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

"Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us 
and alone, cannot but give us all great anxieties for you. 
As much has been secured for you by your particular 
position and acquaintance to which you have been re- 
commended, as could be done towards shielding you 
from the dangers which surround you. But thrown on 
a wide world, among entire strangers, without a friend 
or guardian to advise, so young, too, and with so little 
experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and 
still your safety must rest on yourself A determina- 
tion never to do what is wrongs prudence, and good 
humour, will go far towards securing to you the esti- 
mation of the world. When I recollect, that at fourteen 
years of age, the whole care and direction of myself 
w'as thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or 
friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect 
the various sorts of bad company with which I asso- 
ciated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn 
off with some of them, and become as worthless to 
society as they were. 1 had the good fortune to become 
acquainted very early with some characters of very 
high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I 
could ever become what they were. Under temptations 
and difficulties, I would ask myself w^hat would Dr. 
Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situa» 
tion ? What course in it Avill ensure me their appro- 
bation ? 1 am certain that this mode of deciding on 
my conduct tended more to its correctness than any 
reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and 
dignified line they pursued, I coilld never doubt for a 
moment which of two courses would be in character 
for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through, 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 243 

a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced 
eye of youth, I should often have erred. From the 
circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into 
the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters, 
scientifick and professional men, and of dignified men ; 
and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusi- 
astick moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a 
favourite horse, the issue of a question eloquently ar- 
gued at the har, or in the great council of the nation, 
well, which of these kinds of reputation should I pre- 
fer ? That of a horse-jockey? a fox-hunter? an orator? 
or the honest advocate of my country's rights ? Be 
assured, my dear Jefferson, that these little returns 
into ourselves, this self catechizing habit, is not trifling, 
nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and 
steady pursuit of what is right. 

- " I have mentioned good humour as one of the pre- 
servatives of our peace and tranquillity. It is among 
the most effectual, and its effect is so well imitated 
and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also be- 
comes an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, polite- 
ness is artificial good humour ; it covers the natural 
want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute 
nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice 
of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the 
little conveniences and preferences which will gratify 
them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's 
consideration ; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering 
turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, 
and make them pleased with us as well as them- 
selves. How cheap a price for the good will of an- 
other ! When this is in return for a rude thins: said 



S44 lilFE OF JEFFERSON. 

by another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and 
corrects him in the most salutary way, and places him 
at the feet of your good nature, in the eyes of the com- 
pany. But in stating prudential rules for our govern- 
ment in society, I must not omit the important one of 
never entering into dispute or argument with another. 
I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants 
convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, 
of their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting 
one another. Conviction is the effect of our own dis- 
passionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing 
within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from 
others, standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. 
It was one of the rules, which, above all others, made 
'Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society, 
* never to contradict any body.' If he was urged to 
■announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking ques- 
tions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. 
When I hear another express an opinion which is not 
mine, I ^ay to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as 
i to mine ; why should I question it 1 His errour 
does me no injury; and shall I become a Don Quixote, 
to bring all men by force of sfrgument to one opinion 1 
If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is gratified by a 
belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the 
gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, 
and then I will give it in measured terms ; but if he 
still believes .his own story, and shows a desire to dis- 
pute the fact with me, I hear him, and say nothing.- — 
It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers errour. There 
are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met 
with among us. The first is of young students, just 



I.IFE OF JEFFERSON. 245 

'^©ntered the threshold of science, with a first view of its 
outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifica 
tions which a further progress would bring to their 
knowledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered 
and rude men in society, who have taken up a passion 
for politicks. (Good humour and politeness never in. 
troduce into mixed society a question on which they 
foresee there will be a difference of opinion.) From 
both of those classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson, 
keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects 
of yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, 
when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, 
needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a lis- 
tener only, keep within yourself, and endeavour to es- 
tablish with yourself the habit of silence, especially 
on politicks. In the fevered state of our country, no 
good can ever result from any attempt to set one of 
these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. 
They are determined as to the facts they will believe, 
and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, 
therefore, as you would by an angry bull : it is not for a 
man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. 
You will be more exposed than others to have these 
animals shaking their horns at you, because of the re- 
lation in which you stand with me. Full of political 
venom, and willing to see me and to hate me as a chief 
in the antagonist party, your presence will be to them 
what the vomit-grass is to a sick dog, a nostrum for 
producing ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with 
that eye, and pity them as objects to u'hom you can 
administer only occasional ease. My character is not 
within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow 
22 



246 ttPE OF jTEFif'feRSOI^. 

citizens at large, and will be consigned to honout of 
infamy by the verdict of the republican mass of our 
country, according to what themselves will have seen, 
not what their enemies and mine shall have said." 

The following touching letter to a friend, was occa- 
sioned by the loss of one of his two children. 

"My loss is great indeed. Others may lose of their 
abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half 
of all that I had. My evening prospects now hang 
on the slender thread of a single life. Perhaps I may 
be destined to see even this last cord of parental affec- 
tion broken. The hope with which I had looked for- 
ward to the moment, when, resigning publick cares to 
younger hands, I was to retire to that domestick com- 
fort from which the last great step is to be taken, is 
fearfully blighted. When you and I look back at the 
country over which we have passed, what a field of 
slaughter does it exhibit! Where are all the friends 
who entered it with us, under all the inspiring ener- 
gies of health and hope? As if pursued by the hav- 
ock of war, they are strewed by the way, some earli- 
er, some later, and scarce a few stragglers remain to 
count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet by their own 
fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable 
thing to bear up through the heat of the action, to 
witness the death of all our companions, and merely^ 
be the last victim? I doubt it. We have, however, 
the traveller's consolation : every step shortens the 
distance we have to go ; the end of our journey is in 
sight, the bed wherein we are to rest, and to rise in the 
midst of the friends we have lost. * We sorrow not, 
then, as others who hare no hope,' but look forward to- 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 247 

the day which 'joins us to the great majority.' But 
whatever is to be our destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, 
dictates that we should acquiesce in the will of Him 
whose it is to give and take away, and be contented in 
the enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be 
with us. Of those connected by blood, the number 
does not depend on us. But friends we have, if we 
have merited them. Those of our earliest years stand 
nearest in our affections. But in this, too, you and I 
have been unlucky. Of our college friends (and they 
are the dearest) how few have stood with us in the great 
political questions which have agitated our country : 
and these were of a nature to justify agitation. I did 
not believe the Lilliputian fetters of that day strong 
enough to have bound so many." 

One of the last of Mr. Jefferson's letters, was writ- 
ten near the close of his life. It is addressed to a 
young person for whom he appears to have had an af- 
fectionate regard, and is summed up in these solemn 
and impressive terms : 

•♦ This letter will, as to you, be as one from the 
dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can 
weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent 
father, has requested that I would address to you 
something which might possibly have a favourable in- 
fluence on the course of life you have to run, and I, 
too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. 
Few words will be necessary with good dispositions 
on your part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish 
your parents. Love your neighbour as yourself, and, 
your country more than yourself Be just. Be true. 
Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the 



248 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

life into which yon have entered, be the portal to one of 
eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is 
permitted to care for the things of this world, every 
action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell." 
Shortly after Mr. Jefferson's return to Monticello, it, 
having been proposed to form a college in his neigh- 
bourhood, he addressed a letter to the trustees, in which 
he sketched a plan for the establishment of a general 
system of education in Virginia. This appears to have 
led the way to an act of the legislature in the year 
1818, by which commissioners were appointed with 
authority to select a site and form a plan for a univer- 
sity on a large scale. Of these commissioners, Mr. 
Jefferson was unanimously chosen the chairman, and 
on the fourth day of August, 1818, he framed a report,, 
embracing the principles on which it was proposed 
the institution should be formed. The situation select- 
ed for it was at Charlottesville, a town at the foot of the 
mountain on which Mr. Jefferson resided. The plan 
was such as to combine elegance and utility, with the 
power of enlarging it to any extent which its future 
prosperity may require ; the instruction extended to. 
the various branches of learning which a citizen will 
require in his intercourse between man and man, in 
the improvement of his morals and faculties, and in 
the knowledge and exercise of his social rights. Such 
an education, Mr. Jefferson observes^ " generates hab- 
its of application and the love of virtue ; and con- 
trols, by the force of habit, any innate obliquities in 
our moral organization. We should be far, too, from dis- 
couraging the persuasion, that man is fixed, by the law 
of his nature, at a given point; that his improvement 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 249 

is a chimera, and the hope delusive of rendering our- 
aelres wiser, happier, or better than our forefathers 
were. We need look back only half a century, to 
times which many now living remember well, and see 
the wonderful advances in the sciences and arts which 
have been made within that period. Some of these 
have rendered the elements themselves subservient to 
the purposes of man, have harnessed them to the yoke 
of his labours, and effected the great blessings of mod- 
erating his own, of accomplishing what was beyond 
his feeble force, and of extending the comforts of life 
to a much enlarged circle, to those who had before 
known its necessaries only. That these are not the 
vain dreams of sanguine hope, we have before our 
eyes real and living examples. What but education 
has advanced us beyond the condition of our indige- 
nous neighbours ? and what chains them to their pres- 
ent state of barbarism and wretchedness, but a bigoted 
veneration for the supposed superlative wisdom of 
their fathers, and the preposterous idea that they are 
to look backward for better things, and not forward, 
Jonging, as it should seem, to return to the days of eat- 
ing acorns and roots, rather than indulge in the degen- 
eracies of civilization ? And how much more encour- 
aging to the achievements of science and improvement 
is this, than the despondinrj view that the condition of 
man cannot be meliorated, that what has been must 
ever be, and that to secure ourselves where we are, 
we must tread, with awful reverence, in the footsteps 
of our fathers. This doctiine is the genuine fruit of 
the alliance between church and state, the tenants of 
which, finding themselves but too well in their present 
22* 



2510 IIFE OP JEFFERSON. 

position, oppose all advances which might unmask 
their usurpations, and monopolies of honours, wealthy 
and power, and fear every change, as endangering the 
comforts they now hold." 

The report then proceeds to state the various ar- 
rangements which should be adopted, for the conduct 
of so extensive an institution : and concludes with a 
statement of its financial situation. The plan thus 
proposed was adopted by the legislature. " Mr. Jeffer- 
soa was elected the rector of the new institution, and 
from that period he devoted himself with unceasing 
ardour to carry it into effect. Nothing, indeed, could 
exceed his fond desire for its success. It appeared to 
be the object of all his hopes and thoughts in the de- 
clining years of his life. He rode every morning, 
when the weather would permit, to inspect its pro- 
gress. He prepared with his own hands the drawings 
and plans for the workmen. He stood over them as 
they proceeded with a sort of parental care and anxie- 
ty, and when the inclemency of the season, or the in- 
firmity of age, prevented his visits, a telescope was 
placed on a terrace near his house, by means of which 
he could inspect the progress of the work. After its 
completion, he might oftgnbe seen pacing slowly along 
the porticoes or cloisters which extend in front of the 
dormitories of the students, occasionally conversing 
with them, and viewing the establishment with a natur- 
al and honourable pride. In the library is carefully pre- 
served the catalogue written by himself, in which he 
has collected the names, best editions, and value of all 
works of whatever language in literature and science, 
which he thought necessary to form a complete library,' 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 25! 

and in examining it, one is really less struck with the 
research and various knowledge required for its com- 
pilation, than the additional proof of that anxious car© 
which seemed to search out all the means of fostering 
and improving the institution he had formed." 

But from these pleasant occupations he was roused 
to the scenes of worldly suffering which now sur- 
rounded him. With thoughtless generosity, he had 
devoted the zeal of his youth and the experience of his 
maturer years to the service of his fellow citizens, and 
now, in his old age, he found himself doomed to that 
poverty which he had no longer the ability to repel. 
It was, however, an honourable poverty, incurred 
in the performance of publick duties, or private gen- 
erosity, unsullied by extravagance and unattended by 
crime. And it is difficult to imagine how, in his case, 
it could have been avoided. For more than fifty years 
he had been actively engaged in publick office, gener- 
ally at a distance from his own estate; and though his 
patrimony was originally large, it could not but be 
impaired by this unavoidable neglect. In retiring 
from the exalted station he had enjoyed, he did not en- 
ter on a less conspicuous scene; he had become iden- 
■tified with the greatness and glory of his country, he- 
was the object of attraction to crowds of anxious and 
admiring guests, and, unless by coldly closing his 
doors, it was impossible to limit the expenses he was 
thus obliged to occur. 

In this em^ergency, he applied to the leoislature of 
Virginia, who, in the spring of 1826, partially relieved 
him from his embarrassment, by authorizing him to 
dispose qf his estates by lottery, in order that a fair 



^2 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

price for them might be obtained. When solici(in|^ 
this permission, and after enumerating his many and 
important services, he concludes : " And what remu- 
neration do I ask ? Money from the treasury ? Not a 
cent. I ask nothing from the earnings or labours of 
my fellow citizens. I wish no man's comforts to be 
abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the ser- 
vices rendered on all occasions, I have been always 
paid to my full satisfaction. I never wished a dollar 
more than what the law had fixed on. My request is, 
only to be permitted to sell my own property freely to 
pay my own debts. To sell it, I say,^ and not to sacri- 
fice it ; not to have it gobbled up by speculators to 
make fortunes for themselves, leaving unpaid those 
who have trusted to my good faith, and myself without 
resource in the last and most helpless stage of life. If 
permitted to sell it in a way which will bring me a fair 
price, all will be honourably and honestly paid, and a 
competence left for myself, and for those who look to 
me for subsistence. To sell it in a way which will 
offend no moral principle, and expose none to risk but 
the willing, and those wishing to take the chance of 
gain. To give me, in short, that permission which you 
often allow to others for purposes not more moral." It 
was on this occasion that he produced his •• Thoughts 
on Lotteries ;" in which the arguments are at least 
specious, if not sound ; and in which he endeavours to 
show, with what success we will enable the reader to 
judge, that the objections urged against lotteries equally 
militate against other speculations which have nerer 
been thought opposed to morality or propriety, A 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 253j 

short extract may not be uninteresting, and will prove 
the still unsubdued vigour of his pen : 

" It is a common idea, that games of chance are immoral. 
But what is chance 1 Nothing happens in this world without 
a cause. If we know the cause, we do not call it chance ; but 
if we do not know it, we say it was produced by chance. If 
we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up^ we know the cause, 
and that it is not an effect of chance ; but whaiever side an 
unloaded die turns up, nut knowing the cause, we say it is the 
effect of chance. Yet the moralit^y of a thing cannot depend 
on our knowledge or ignorance of its cause. Not knowing 
why a particular side of an unloaded die turns up, cannot make 
the act of throwing it, or of betting on it. immoral. If we 
consider games of chance immoral, then every pursuit of hu- 
man industry is immoral, for there is not a single one that is 
not subject to chance ; not one wherein you do not risk a loss 
for the chance of some gain. The navigator, for example, 
risks his ship in the hope (if she is not lost in the voyage) of 
gaining an advantageous freight. The merchant risks his 
cargo to gain a better price for it. A landholder builds a house 
on the risk of indemnifying himself by a rent. The hunter 
hazards his time and trouble in the hope of killing game. In 
all these pursuits, you stake some one thing against another 
which you hope to win. But the greatest of all gamblers is 
the farmer. He risks the seed he puts into the ground, the 
rent he pays for the ground itself, the year's labour on it, and 
the wear and tear of his cattle and gear, to win a crop, which, 
the chances of too much or too little rain, and general uncer- 
tainties of weather, insects, waste, &c. often make a total 
or partial loss. These, then, are games of chance. Yet so 
far from being immoral, they are indispensable to the exist- 
ence of man, and every one has a natural right to choose for 
his pursuit such one of^them as he thinks most likely to furnish 
him subsistence. Almost all these pursuits of chance produce 
something useful to society. But there are some which pro- 
duce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the individuals 
engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are 
games with cards, dice, billiards, &c. And although the pur- 
suit of them is a matter of natural right, yet society, perceiv- 
ing the irresistible bent of some of its members to pursue them, 
and the ruin produced by them to the families depending on 
these individuals, consider it as a case of insanity, qiioad hoc, 
step in to protect the family and the parly himself, as in other 
cases of insanity, infancy, imbecility, &c., and suppress the 
pursuit altogether, and the natural right of following it. There 
are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions, 
and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds. 
Such are ensurances, lotteries, raffles, &c. These they do not 
suppress, but take their regulation under their own discretion. 



854 IIFB OF JEFFERSON. 

The ensurance of ships on voyages is a vocation of chance, 
yet useful, and the right to exercise it, therefore, is left free. 
So of houses against fire, doubtful debts, the continuance of a 
particular life, and similar cases. Money is wanting for a 
useful undertaking, as a school, &c., for which a direct lax 
would be disapproved. It is raised, therefore, by a lottery, 
wherein the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on 
those who can risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, 
for the possibility of a higher prize. An article of property, 
insusceptible of division at all, or not without great diminution 
of its worth, is sometimes of so large value as that no purchas- 
er can be found while the owner owes debts, has no oth^r 
means of payment, and his creditors no other chance of ob- 
taining it but by its sale at a fall and fair price. The lottery 
is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many 
run small risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize. In this 
way, the great estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was 
made competent to pay his debts, which, had the whole been 
brought into the market at once, would have overdone the de- 
mand, would have sold at half or quarter the value, and sacri- 
ficed the creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have 
lost their debts. This method of selling was formerly very 
much resorted to, until it was thought to nourish too much a 
spirit of hazard. The legislature were therefore induced, not 
to suppress it altogether, but to take it under their own special 
regulation. This they did, for the first time, by their act of 
1769, c. 17., before which time, ev^ery person exercised the 
right freely ; and since which time, it is made unlawful but 
when approved and authorized by a special act of the legisla- 
ture. 

" "We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject 
to the influence of chance ; that, so far from being rendered 
immoral by the admixture of that ingredient, were they aban- 
doned on that account, man could no longer subsist; that, 
among them, every one has a natural right to choose that which 
he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence ; but 
that while the greater number of these pursuits are productive 
of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of 
life, others again, such as cards, dice, &c. are entirely unpro- 
ductive, doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and 
so seducing in practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, 
that they cannot resist the temptation, be the consequences what 
they may ; that in this case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, 
infancy, &.c. it is the duty of society to take them under its 
protection, even against their own acts, and to restrain their 
right of choice of these pursuits, by suppressing them entirely; 
that there are others, as lotteries particularly, which although 
liable to chance also, are useful for many purposes, and are 
therefore retained and placed under the discretion of the legis- 
lature, to be permitted or refused according to the circumstaur 



LIFE Of JEFFERSON. 255 

ces of every special case, of which they are' to judge; that be- 
tween the years 1782 and 1820, a space of thirty-eight years 
only, we have observed seventy cases, where the permission 
of them has been found useful by the legislature, some of which 
are in progress at this time. These cases relate to the emolu- 
ment of the whole state, to local benefits of education, of navi- 
gation, of roads, of counties, towns, religious assemblies, private 
societies, and of individuals under particular circumstances 
which may claim indulgence or favour. The latter is the case 
now submitted to the legislature, and the question is, whether 
the individual soliciting their attention, or his situation, may 
merit that degree of consideration which will justify the legis- 
lature in permitting him to avail himself of the mode of selling 
by lottery, for the purpose of paying his debts." 

But few more incidents belong to the eventful life of 
Mr. Jefferson. The full vigour of his mind, indeed^ 
remained unimpaired until a very short period before 
he fell into the grave. The few remaining circum- 
stances attending the close of his life, we give in the 
words of the *' American Biography," a work to which 
we have already acknowledged our obligations. No 
language more appropriate could be employed, and no 
one seems better qualified than this author to portray 
the final scene of departing greatness. 

"The year 1826 being the fiftieth since the estab- 
lishment of our independer.ee, it was determined uni- 
versally throughout the United States, to celebrate it as a 
jubilee, with unusual rejoicing; preparations to this 
end were made in every part of the country ; and all 
means were taken to impart to the celebration the dig- 
nity which was worthy of the country and the erent. 
The citizens of Washington, the metropolis of the na- 
tion, among other things invited Mr. Jefferson, as one 
of the surviving signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, to unite with them in their festivities; this 
request he was obliged to decline ; but the letter ia 



256 LIFE Ot JEFFERSON. 

which he signified his regret, is left to us as a monu- 
ment of his expiring greatness. On the twenty-fourth 
of June, when the hand of death was already upon 
him, he expressed in this letter all those characteristick 
sentiments which through life had so strongly marked 
him — the delight with which he looked back to the pe- 
riod, when his country had made its glorious election 
between submission and the sword — the joy he felt in 
its consequent prosperity — the hope he indulged, that 
the time would yet come when civil and religious free- 
dom should bless all the world — his ardent wish, that the 
return of that day should keep fresh in us the recollec- 
tion of our rights, and increase our devotion to them, 
and the affectionate remembrance with which he dwelt 
on the kindness he had experienced from his fellow 
citizens. He thus addresses the mayor of Washings- 
ton : 

* Respected sir — The kind invitation I received from 
you, on the part of the citizens of the city of Wash- 
ington, to be present with them at their celebration of 
the fiftieth anniversary of American independence, as 
one of the surviving signers of an instrument, pregnant 
with our own, and the fate of the w^orld, is most flatter- 
ing to myself, and heightened by the honourable ac- 
companiment proposed for the comfort of such a jour- 
Tiey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to 
be deprived by it of a personal participation in the re- 
joicings of that day ; but acquiescence under circum- 
stances is a duty not placed among those we are per- 
mitted to control. I should, indeed, with peculiar de- 
light, have met and exchanged there, congratulations, 
personally, with the small band, the remnant of th€ 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 257 

host of worthies who joined with us, on that day, in the 
bold and doubtful election we were to make for our 
country, between submission and the sword; and to 
have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our 
fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and 
prosperity, continue to approve the choice Vv^e made. 
May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to 
some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) 
the signal of a) ousing men to burst the chains, under 
which monkish ignorance and superstition had per- 
suaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the 
blessings and security of self-government. The form 
which we have substituted, restores the free right to 
the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opin- 
ion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of 
man. The general spread of the lights of science, 
has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, 
that the mass of mankind has not been born with sad- 
dles on their backs, nor a favoured few, booted and 
spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace 
of God. These are grounds of hope for others ; for 
ourselves, let the annual return of this day for ever 
refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undi- 
minished devotion to them. I will ask permission 
here, to express the pleasure with which I should have 
met my ancient neighbours of the city of Washington 
and its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years 
of a pleasing social intercourse — an intercourse which 
so much relieved the anxieties of the publick cares, 
and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affec- 
tions, as never to be forgotten. With my regret that 
ill health forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, 
23 



258 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

be pleased to receive for yourself, and those for whom 
you write, the assurance of my highest respect and 
friendly attachments.' 

" Soon after this letter was written, the indisposition 
of Mr. Jefferson assumed a more serious character. 
He had been for some time ill, though it was not un- 
til the twenty-sixth of June that he was obliged to con- 
fine himself to his bed. The strength of his constitu- 
tion, and freedom from bodily pain, for a short time 
encouraged the hope that his illness was merely tem- 
porary. He himself, however, felt the conviction that 
his last hour was approaching. He had already lived 
beyond the limits ordinarily assigned to human exist- 
ence, and for some months past, the whole tone of his 
conversation showed that he was looking forward to 
its termination, with a calmness and equanimity worthy 
of his past life. ' I do not wish to die,' he was in ,the 
habit of saying to the intimate friends around him, 
' but I do not fear to die. Acquiescence under cir- 
cumstances is a duty we are permitted to control.' 
He declared, that could he but leave his family un- 
embarrassed, and see the child of his old age, the uni- 
versity, fairly flourishing, he was ready to depart — 
nunc dimittis Domine, the beautiful ejaculation of the 
Hebrew prophet, was his favourite quotation. — May 
God and his country grant the fulfilment of his dying- 
wishes. On the second of July, the complaint Avith 
which he was afflicted left him ; but his physician ex- 
pressed his fears that his strength might not prove suf- 
ficient to restore him from the debility to which it had 
reduced him ; conscious himself that he could not re- 
cover, and free from all bodily and apparently from all 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 259 

mental pain, he calmly gave directions relative to his 
coffin and his interment, which he requested might bs 
at Monticello, without parade or pomp ; he then called 
his family around him, and conversed separately with 
each " of them ; to his beloved daughter, Mrs. Ran- 
dolph, he presented a small morocco case, which he 
requested her not to open until after his death : when 
the sad limitation had expired, it was found to contain 
an elegant and affectionate strain of poetry, on the 
virtues of her from whom he was thus torn away. 
On Monday, the following day, he inquired of those 
around him with much solicitude, what was the day of 
the month ; they told him it was the third of July ; he 
then eagerly expressed his desire that he might be per- 
mitted to live yet a little while, to breathe the air of the 
fiftieth anniversary. The wish was granted — the Al- 
mighty hand sustained him up to the very moment 
when his wish was complete ; and then bore him to 
that world, where the pure in heart meet their God." 
Mr. Jefferson expired at Monticello, at ten minutes be- 
fore one o'clock on the fourth of July, 1826; within 
the same hour at which, fifty years before, the declara- 
tion of independence had been promulgated. x\t this 
time he had reached the age of eighty-three years, two 
months, and twenty-one days. 

Thus ripe in years, and rich in fame and good ac- 
tions, 'departed this venerable father of the republick. 
His services commenced with the freedom and happi- 
ness of his country, and terminated only at her unbound- 
ed prosperity and greatness. But his influence rests 
not here, and the name and opinions of Jefferson are 
yet to be the guides through many generations. His 



260 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

laurels were hardly earned and will wear well, and as 
long as " truth is left free to combat errour," must 
remain untarnished and unsullied. 

The reader may form and justly appreciate the 
publick character of Mr. Jefferson, from the memoirs 
which .he has perused. In that character will, we 
think, be distinguished, independence of mind, firmness 
and frankness of conduct, undaunted resolution, and 
indefatigable perseverance. And all these, aided by 
an intellect no less powerful than acute, no less com- 
prehensive in its grasp than minute in its discernment. 
But perhaps the most distinguishing trait in his publick 
character, was firm and undeviating consistency. He 
was s v/ayed by the purity of democracy throughout. He 
has stood before tAvo generations ; and the same politi- 
cal doctrines w^hich he first espoused, he advocated 
v.'ith persevering consistency unto the end. Forming 
his judgements after the best reflections that he could 
bestow, and after the fullest information he could col- 
lect, lie ever after adhered to them. This may some- 
times have been, the cause of errour, but it was also 
the foundation of that political and moral firmness 
which may be traced from the very -first moment of 
his entering upon life, until its close. 

It has been well observed, that Mr. Jefferson's mind 
partook of the character which he wished to commu- 
nicate to society. His speculations all manifest a feel- 
ing of independence, which allowed no authority to 
restrain him in the indulgence of his thoughts. It is 
remarkable that he never quotes the opinion of any 
other as the foundation or motive of his own. In 
whatever respect he held the leputation of the great 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 261 

or learned, he did not pay them the deference of re- 
ceiving their belief or their doctrines without investi- 
gation ; for there are few fancies so extravagant in 
morals or philosophy, as not to have received, at some 
period or other, the countenance of great names, and 
to have been allowed by their sanction to pass current 
in society. 

As we have already seen, the principal attempt in 
'which his philanthropick efforts were unsuccessful, was 
the gradual emancipation of slaves, and the immedi- 
ate inhibition of the traffick ; and it will also be per- 
ceived that, in his draft of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, one of the grievances, charged upon the 
abjured sovereign, was the constant negative which he 
put upon all laws passed in the colonies for the abo- 
lition of the slave trade. His advocacy of the cause 
of slaves is a proof, if any were wanting, that his 
motive for reform was not the desire of popularity, 
and that he was not disposed to flatter publick opinion 
in order to obtain its support. On the contrary, he 
dared to attack it in a point where it was the most 
sensitive and intractable. in espousing the cause 
of the slaves, he excited for the most part the jealousy 
of their masters. He could have no motive but the 
honour of his country and the impulse of humanity. 

" Mr. Jefferson resembled Dr. Franklin in the char- 
acter of his mind, and in his fortunes. Neither of 
them had a predilection for political concerns. The 
studies most congenial to their minds were the specu- 
lations of philosophy, the discoveries of science, and 
the pursuits of natural history. They each had a 
Ibndness for the mechanick arts. Engaged in similar 
23* 



262 LIFE OF JEFFERSOjr. 

objects, they enjoyed abroad the same scientifick cor- 
respondence, and arrived at the same classical hon- 
ours; and the traveller sees with pride their names 
associated and inscribed on the contributions which 
America has made to the learned cabinets of Europe. 

" Dr. Franklin, also, is more known as a writer 
than an orator. Some of his speeches are reported. 
Though they are distinguished by the peculiar and 
extraordinary features of his mind, and were always 
delivered with effect, yet it is remarked, that he never 
spoke longer than ten minutes. Mr. Jefferson too, 
wanting strength of voice, relied altogether upon his 
power of writing ; and as nature is observed to com- 
pensate the loss of one sense by giving more force to 
another, so Mr. Jefferson's disuse of public k speaking 
seems to have thrown additional energies in his writ- 
ten composition." 

Mr. Jefferson was the ac]i:nowledged head of the 
republican party, from the period of its organization 
down to that of his retirement from publick life. The 
unbounded praise and blame which he received as a 
politician, must be left for the judgement of the histo- 
rian and posterity. 

In person, Mr. Jefferson was tall, erect, and well 
formed, though thin ; his countenance was bland and 
expressive ; his conversation fluent, imaginative, vari- 
ous, and eloquent. Few men equalled him in the fac- 
ulty of pleasing in personal intercourse and acquiring 
ascendency in political connexion. His complexion 
was fair, and his features remarkably expressive ; his 
forehead broad, the nose not larger than the common 
size, and the whole face square, and expressive of deep 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 263 

thinking. In liis conversation he was cheerful and eti- 
thusiastick ; and his language was singularly correct 
and vivacious. His manners were simple and unaf- 
fected, mingled, however, with much native but unob- 
trusive dignity. 

In disposition, Mr. Jeflerson was full of liberality 
and benevolence. His charity was unostentatious, but 
bountiful ; a certain portion of his revenue was regu- 
larly applied to maintain and extend it ; and it has been 
remarked, that those who, since his death, have travel- 
led in that part of Virginia where he resided, could not 
fail to be struck with the repeated, the grateful, and 
the unpremeditated tributes which are every where 
paid to his memory — the constant appeal to his opin- 
ions, the careful remembrance and relation of every 
anecdote affecting his person and his actions. In his 
family he was hospitable to a degree which caused 
poverty to throve some dark shadows over the evening 
of his life : he was kind to his domesticks, by whom it 
was remarked, that no instance had ever occurred in 
which he had lost his temper ; he was warmly attached 
and devoted to his children and relatives, whom he 
loved to assemble around him ; and we have seen how 
bitterly he felt the blow which deprived him of one of 
his two children — a calamity which seems to have 
shaken his affectionate nature to its centre. The sim- 
plicity of the domestick habits of Mr. Jefferson, have 
been already discovered in our extracts from his cor- 
respondence. 

The correspondence of Mr. Jefferson was varied 
and extensive, to a degree that became extremely irk- 
some in his latter years. On this subject, in the year 



264 LIFE OF JEFFERSON. 

1822, he thus expressed himself to Mr. Adams : '' I 
do not know how far you may suffer, as I do, under 
the persecution of letters, of which every mail brings 
a fresh load. They are letters of inquiry, for the most 
part, always of good will, sometimes from friends 
whom I esteem, but much oftener from persons whose 
names are unknown to me, but written kindly and 
civilly, and to which, therefore, eivility requires an- 
swers. I happened to turn to my letter list some time 
ago, and a curiosity was excited to count those received 
in a single year. I found the number to be one thou- 
sand two hundred and sixty-seven, many of them re- 
quiring answers of elaborate research, and all to be- 
answered with due attention and consideration." 

A few words respecting the religious opinions of 
Mr. Jefferson, and we close the volume. He has been 
represented as it suited party rancour : at one time, as 
the atheistical desperado, warring against the God of 
heaven; at another, as the ribald scoffer, throwing 
malignant sneers upon the declarations of His word. 
But he was far, very far, from being either of these. 
However opposed Mr. Jefferson may have been to 
what he considered the corruptions or abuses of Chris- 
tianity, yet to the spirit and precepts of the gospel he 
was strongly attached : and of the character of our 
Saviour he was a warm and professed admirer. His 
correspondence is full of declarations to this effect, and 
they are given as the frank and undisguised sentiments 
of his heart. In a letter to his friend. Dr. Rush, he 
thus gives him his views of the Christian religion : 
•' They are," says he, " the result of a life of inquiry and 
reflection, and very different from that anti-Christiau. 



LIFE OF JEFFERSON, 265 

system imputed to me by those who know nothing of 
my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity, I 
am, indeed, opposed ; but not to the genuine precepts 
of Jesus himself I am a Christian in the only sense 
in which he wished any one to be ; sincerely attached 
to his doctrines in preference of all others ; ascribing 
to himself every human excellence ; and believing he 
never claimed any other." Accompanying this letter 
was a syllabus of an estimate of the merit of the doc- 
trines of Jesus, in which, among other reasons, he as- 
signs the following for the intrinsick superiority of 
the divine lawgiver : 

" 1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming 
them in the belief of one only God, and giving them 
juster notions of his attributes and government, 

" 2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and 
friends, were more pure and perfect than those of the 
most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so 
than those of the Jews ; and they went far beyond both 
in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kin- 
dred and friends, to neighbours and countrymen, but 
to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under 
the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants, and 
common aids. A developement of this head will 
evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus 
over all others. 

" 3. The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew 
code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his scruti- 
nies into the heart of man ; erected his tribunal in the 
region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the 
fountain head. 

" 4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrine of a future 



'^66 LIFE OF JEFPeRSON. 

State, which was either doubted or disbelieved by the 
Jews ; and wielding it w4th efficacy, as an important 
incentive, supplementary to the other motives to moral 
conduct." 

In a letter to John Adams are these words : *' If by 
religion \yq are to understand sectarian dogmas, in 
which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on 
that hypothesis is just, ' that this would be the best of 
all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.' — 
But if the moral precepts innate in man, and made a 
part of his physical constitution, as necessary for a 
social being — if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism 
and Deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, in which 
all agree, constitute true religion, then, without it, this 
would be, as you again say, ' something not fit to be 
named, even indeed, a hell.' " 

In another letter to Dr. Waterhouse, he thus express- 
es himself: " The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and 
tend all to the happiness of man. 

" 1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect. 

" 2. That there is a future state of rewards and pun- 
ishments. 

" 3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy 
neighbour as thyself, is the sum of religion." 

Certainly all this is not the language of an enemy 
io Christianity. It would be a- forced service to en- 
rol under the banners of atheism him who has ex- 
pressed such an unhesitating reliance on the controllings 
energies of a superintending Providence; and one 
would suppose the man who declares that 'this earth 
would be a hell without the religion of Jesus,' wouic 



LIFE OF Jefferson. 267 

be more apt to share with the Bible in the hatred of the 
scoffer, than be considered his coadjutor- in profanity. 

But though Mr. Jefferson's opinion on certain religious 
points should be hostile to our own, how is he more 
culpable than the thousands who have embraced differ- 
ent forms of belief? In what respect do his religious 
tenets differ from those of his venerable predecessor, 
or from those of his equally celebrated son ? In dis- 
senting from the opinion of others, whose piety and 
wisdom are entitled to veneration, he has not underta- 
ken to advance his own with pride or bitterness. He 
has not condescended to disguise his sentiments for 
fear of provoking opposition, nor has he been ambi- 
tious to obtrude them on the publick in the conceit of 
making converts. 

His death tested the sincerity of his faith, and he 
died with that calmness, serenity, and full reliance on 
the mercy of his Maker, which both philosophy and 
relision desire. 



THE END. 



mi' XI 3d 



I ^s rM 







